The Way Things Should Be
by emaliar.malfoy
Summary: Sequel to The Way Things Were. Adam's in rehab and he hates it. Bella and Charlie are together but Charlie did something and now he's really confused. Please read and review. Slash. Mentions of self harm.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

January 3, 1998

Adam's POV  
I had been quite for week. Check that I had been quite for the last 5 weeks, ever since I found out of my fate going to Lakeside Academy in California on Thanksgiving. I was mad at everyone. I was mad at Gunner and Charlie for keeping this secret. I was mad at Charlie even more because of what he did on Thanksgiving. I was mad at my parents for not fighting Bombay on this issue. I was mad at Bella for everything that she had done to me since before our birthday, when she called me a fag. I was mad at Ollie, Mr. and Mrs McKay and Eleanor Bombay for agreeing that I should go to this academy. I was mad at Dean Buckley and Eden Hall for not stopping this. I was mad at Gordon and Michele for making me go, getting everything arranged and prepared for their move back to California. Most of all I was made at Alex for suggesting this place, in the first place. Every time I went to a therapy session, I didn't speak one single, solidarity word to her. I watched the clock tick by on the endless half hour long sessions with her. I was not a very happy camper, I even sneered at the stranger on the street or in the stores that dared to wish me a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year". I didn't want to go. I sat and sulked in the house as the moving company was loading the belongings to make the cross-country trip, yesterday. We had a flight out to Sacramento, California first thing this morning at 8:30 in the morning.  
"Alright you are all set, enjoy your flight," said the ticketing agent that had a bounce in her voice at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  
"HUMPH," I said as I rolled my eyes.  
"Come on, Adam. Let's go we are going to miss our flight," Gordon said with a smile on his face and an arm holding one of my arms, Michelle held the other one.  
We sat in front of our gate waiting for the flight. Charlie, Casey and Gunnar came to see us off. In fact, Charlie and Gunnar both held me hostage while Gordon went to talk to the gate attendant for our gate. I gave them the mad face each, I was so, so, so pissed at them.  
"Now boarding flight American Airlines Flight 2299 non-stop service to Dallas Ft. Worth, gate E13," came a voice over the speakerphone.  
"That's our flight, you better say goodbye to Gunnar and Charlie," Michele said.  
"HUMPH," I said.  
"Take care of yourself, Banks," Charlie said.  
"HUMPH," I said.  
Gunnar whispered in my ear, "You know I love you. Please be good about this, it's the best thing for you. I vill be vaiting on the other side," Gunnar said then he placed a kiss to my temple.  
"Yeah right," I said.  
"He speaks, that is the first two words I have heard out of you in five weeks," Gordon said.  
"HUMPH," I said as I planted my feet.  
"Let's go Adam move your feet," Michele said to me.  
Gordon and Charlie had to drag me onto the plane as we neared our seats I had a plan to take the aisle seat so I could bolt just before the flight attendants closed the door to the plane. With any luck I would be thru the airport and on my way to Canada before the plane would take off. Unfortunately, I was the first one in our row of seats, I had the window seat. Which meant that I would have to climb over not only Gordon but Michelle as well to get out so much for that plan. When we landed in Dallas a pair of handcuffs and shackles was applied to my hands and feet.  
"What the hell," I said.  
"To prevent you from escaping Banksie," Gordon said.  
I gave him my mad face. I didn't want to be in shackles and handcuffs throughout Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, waiting for our flight, boarding and going to Sacramento. I didn't have a choice. I felt like I was a criminal, I had those shackles and handcuffs on until we made the four hour car trip to Lakeside Academy on Eagle Lake from Sacramento the next day.  
When we pulled up to the academy I saw several other boys from 13-18 arriving at the campus.  
"Nice huh," Gordon said as he got out of the car.  
"No, nice would be home in MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA," I said.  
A big burly guy came up to us, "Welcome to Lakeside Academy, I'm Mike you must be Adam, Gordon and Michele."  
"Hello Mike, it's nice to meet you" said Michele and then she was pulled into a hug.  
"I have to warn you, I'm a hugger," Mike said.  
"I'm a shaker or at least I would be if I didn't have these stupid cuffs on me," I said.  
"Well come in, come in. Let's get you settled," Mike said as he took my suitcase from Michele's hand and lead her into the building that said residence.  
"Don't make me get the pitchfork out, Banksie," Gordon whispered in my ear.  
"HUMPH," I said as I was being lead inside.  
I figured that Mike at least played college football if not professional football. I towed over him by 4 inches, I was almost 6'3 over his 5'11 but he outweighed me by 150 pounds, with sandy blonde hair. We were led into an Administration office, where Michele and Gordon filled out the paperwork and everything of mine was checked in. Mike introduced us to his wife Annie, she was the total opposite of Mike, slight, skinny and not very talkative. She went through my suitcase and inventoried everything.  
"Your room is right here, your roommate is Treban, you'll like him he is a good guy. Our room is right next to the bathroom at the end of the hall. If you have any questions, problems or concerns please feel free to knock on the door, 24/7," Annie said.  
"Yeah, just one: How do I transfer out of this chicken outfit," I said.  
"BANKSIE!" Michele said.  
"Uh huh," Annie said and then she left the room.  
There was two closets, two beds, two desks and two dressers. I sat on the bed that had been stripped of sheets. Treban's bed was already made up waiting for his arrival.  
"So where do you want clothes, the closet or dresser drawers?" Michele asked.  
I didn't say a word. Gordon waved a hand in my face before he said, "Banksie Michele's talking to you."  
Michelle and Gordon unpacked my suitcase and set my end of the room up for me. Making sure that my beloved Mike Modano poster was hung with care. Also included where pictures of the ducks, when we had our team photos: The first one was taken just a few days before the playoffs in peewees. The next few were when we were a part of Team USA both in Minnesota and Los Angeles and the last two photos the Eden hall freshman team after our victory against varsity last year and this year's Varsity photo, taken that first week of school, I smiled the smallest smile I could muster when I saw that one, Charlie, Portman, Gunnar and Bella had forced Orion and the Dean to let me be in it. Michele and Gordon put up photos of them, Charlie, Bella and I during Easter break last year. Gunnar had snuck in a photo of himself as well. Once my room was done, Gordon took off the shackles and the handcuffs.  
"There your free now," Gordon said.  
"Good can I go home? You have made your point, I promise I won't cut again," I said.  
"Nope, you have to stay here, and we better get going its a long drive back to Sacramento. You take care of yourself, I'm sorry Adam, but this is what's best for s best for you," Michelle said with tears starting to fall down her face, as she left my room.  
Mike had come outside with us to say goodbye to Michele and Gordon. "You take care of yourself. We'll see you in two weeks," Gordon said as he gave me a hug after Michele had.

Soon Gordon and Michele were on their way back to Sacramento.  
"This is the hardest part about this program," Mike said as he put a hand on my shoulder.  
"Yeah right," I said as I rolled my eyes.  
"Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack," came out of a duck.  
"Hey Henry this is Adam," Mike said.  
"Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, quack, quack, quack," Henry said.  
"Ah look at that he's saying hello," Mike said.  
I sneered and walked away. Unfortunately, the stupid duck followed me all the way down to the lake, quacking the whole time.  
"Get the hell away from me. You stupid duck!" I said.  
…

I didn't speak to anyone at all that first week. When it was my turn to talk to the psychiatrist Dr. Freeman, who looked a lot like Robin Williams. I didn't say a word to him, I stared at the clock. Waiting for him to say well our time is up. The daily schedule was the same: Breakfast, followed by school. Each one of us would be taken out of class at some point to have therapy sessions but either Dr. Freeman or Dr. Marshall. After school we were allowed outside to some activity, then group therapy, homework or free time if you didn't have homework, dinner, chores, a group activity, vespers and bed. Each room had different chores that was changed from week to week. Feeding the Animals and mucking horse barn, taking the trash out, KP duty, cleaning the various areas of the house: Bathrooms, living areas and game room, Entry and hallways, Classrooms and counselling offices, dinning, exercise and music rooms or doing the workshop and other outdoor chores. Which involved scooping the sidewalk and putting down ice melt if it snowed. Being up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains it snowed a lot during the winter. During the summer it would be cutting the grass and attending to the vegetable patch out back.  
It was nearly two weeks of me not speaking to Dr. Freeman, I stared at the clock waiting for him to say something. "You know Adam you can stay silent all you want that still doesn't change my opinion of you. But I guarantee something. Eventually you are going to talk, and when you do, we are going to have a long long conversion," Dr. Freeman said to me.  
Henry the duck would follow me outside whenever I was outside, quacking annoyingly at me. No matter what I did he just kept at me, trying to get me to talk to him, stupid duck. The only person that I talked to was Gunnar via a letter, I missed him. It's amazing how much inspiration that you would get from Boys to Men in writing that first letter to Gunnar. I let my heart pour out to Gunnar telling him that I was sorry for everything that I had done, I had begged for forgiveness.

GORDON P.O.V:  
The two weeks flew by, we were busy signing the rental agreement on a little 3-bedroom bungalow that Michele and I had rented in Yuba City, CA . Settling into my new job for the Goodwill Games committee who was headquarter in Sacramento. The moving truck arrived in California on Thursday afternoon of the first week after a 27-hour 1,900-mile journey . They had broken down in South Dakota and Nevada. We were happy that we could finally move out of the hotel room that we were staying in and live in our new home.  
When we arrived at Lakeside Academy that Sunday morning, I noticed that we had the only car in the parking lot. We had met with the Administration Dr. Jeffry Binford, Dr. Freeman and Ms. Gables, Adam's teacher.  
"So how's Adam doing," Michele asked.  
"Not well, but that is to be expected," Dr. Binford said.  
"He's been sullen, moody, not wanting to do chores or school work, not talking and he cry's himself to sleep at night," Dr. Freeman said.  
"Did we make the wrong decision," Michele asked.  
"No, you made the right decision. This happens with each and everyone of the boys that enrolls here. Usually the first month or two is the hardest for the boys. But we will break thru that icy front he is trying to put on. The thing is that he is going to start asking to come home, probably starting today, when you see him," Ms. Gables said.  
"So where is he now?" I asked.  
"Right now the house parents and all of the boys are at church, its a requirement that they have to go," Dr. Binford said, "We also wanted to tell you that we have finished diagnosing Adam and he has the following: Anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a mild form of Asperger's syndrome. Michele and I were completely floored at the Asperger's."  
"When you say, Asperger's what does that mean?" I asked.  
"It means that he has problems with social interactions, its largely inherited, very common." Dr. Freeman said.  
"But he has normal language and intelligence, I know I tutored him and his teammates 4 years ago," Michelle said.  
"Yes he does, he has above average of intelligence and language skills for a boy of his age. His problem is the social interactions. He doesn't want to talk to no one, or do anything to be of help," Ms. Gables said.  
"So what does this mean, will we be supporting him for the rest of our lives," I asked.  
"No that is not the case. We believe that he is very high functioning level of autism. Meaning he will be able to go to work and keep a job, its the social interaction that he has problems with and he tends to have outbursts at times. Many of the staff had caught him screaming and yelling at the resident duck trying to get him to get away from him. He will go on to live a completely normal life," Dr. Binford said.  
The minute that the van's arrived from the church, Adam was one of the first boys off the van and ran over to us and nearly tackled Michele to the ground.  
"Oh Adam it's good to see you," Michele said.  
"I am sorry for everything. I am so much better, can we go home, please?" Adam asked.  
"Stay strong Gordon," Michele whispered to me.  
"I'm sorry Adam but no. We love you too much not too see a completely 100 percent healthy Adam," I said.  
"THIS SUCKS! YOU STILL PUNISHING ME JUST BECAUSE I'M GAY? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO PUSH ME OUT OF YOUR LIFE TO MAKE ROOM FOR THAT THING?" Adam yelled pointing at Michele's baby bump.  
"No Adam that isn't true you know that. We love you as much as we do the baby. We want to see you healthy were we don't have to worry about you 24 hours a day," Michele said.  
"THAT'S SUCH A LOAD OF BULL, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU. I WANT TO GO HOME, PLEASE CAN'T WE GO HOME?" Adam yelled.  
"No Adam you are here for the duration of your program and that is the final word," I said.  
"I am going to lose Gunnar, I can't believe that your punishing me like this," Adam said.  
"Adam this is not a punishment, come on lets go for a walk, there has to be something good about this place," Michele said.  
We felt bad about leaving Adam behind when Parents day was over. Michele cried for a good 45 minutes after we had left the Academy. I asked God to help Adam see the light, if anybody could do it; he could.

ADAM P.O.V:  
I couldn't believe Gordon and Michele for driving off like they did. I wanted to go home, I was pretty ticked off at them for not letting me go home.  
"Hey Adam," Treban said to me; I said nothing.  
"Look there's something that I have to get off my chest." I looked at him, "Are you really gay?" Treban asked. Again, I said nothing.  
"Look I think it's cool, my uncle is gay, and my family doesn't have a problem with him," Treban said.  
"Really?" I asked.  
"Yep, had his partner for like 20 years. I call him my aunt Frank," Treban said.  
"What about you?" I asked.  
"I'm not gay, I have a girlfriend Molly," Treban said he then went over to his cork board and retrieved a picture of her. "This is her, it's from last year's Sadie Hawkins dance at our school," Treban said. Molly was good looking, she was very pale as opposed to Treban's dark skin, they looked cute together. "Do you have a boyfriend?" Treban asked.  
"Yeah, Gunnar at least I did. I don't know where we stand. I was fairly mad at him for everything that happened," I said.  
"Let me guess he kept a big secret from you?" Treban asked.  
"Yeah this place, told me as he said goodbye that he loved me, and he will be waiting on the other side for me. I gave him the brush off. I sent him a letter of apology a week ago, but I haven't heard anything, but I sorta kept a secret from him as well," I said.

"Do you have a picture of him?" Treban asked.  
"Yeah," I said and then I grabbed Gunnar's picture off my cork board and showed it to Treban, "That's him."  
"Where are you from originally, Michigan?" Treban said after looking at Gunnar's picture for two or three minutes.  
"Minneapolis Minnesota," I said.  
"He's good looking. Look I would not get to bent up about not hearing something from him, yet. The letter is probably still trying to get there. The mail is notoriously known for being slow," Treban said.  
"I hope that is it and that he hasn't found someone else. If he had I would die," I said.  
"I'm sure of it," Treban said. "Who are the others of?"

"That's my sister, Bella and my best friend Charlie. That's my older brother, Ollie he lives in France. My guardians Ms MacKay and Coach Bombay. Then that's all my hockey team's…" I trailed off when I saw one more of the photos on the wall. The one Charlie said Bella had found, of us and Dad.

We heard the dinner bell. "Well let's go eat, I'm starving," Treban said as he put his picture of Molly back on his dresser. "Go on I will be right there," I said. After Treban left I told Gunnar's picture that I hoped Treban was right, that you hadn't gotten the letter yet. I then kissed the picture it wasn't the same but still it felt good to get a release out of me. I still cried myself to sleep that night, but it wasn't as long as it usually was.

**A/N: First of all thank you to bobcatwriter who practically wrote this chapter, absolute legend. What do you think so far? Ideas? Let me know in the reviews and if you have any questions just PM.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

I wrote another letter. To the Ducks, I sent it to Orion and told him to read it at some point, I trust him, I think he'll do it. Treban says it's like I'm a different person, which is true. I talk to him, Mike and Annie now, that's three people at least. Don't get me wrong I can't stand it here, but it's gets better with time apparently. I try to avoid the looks the others give me when I walk down the hallways. But they know better than to ask questions, they know who I am. Someone let it leak that I was an international gold medallist, but at least some of the looks are of awe and not like I'm deranged any more.

I decided to send another note along with the one for the Ducks, one telling the truth. For Bella, Charlie and Gunnar.

CHARLIE P.O.V:

"Alright team gather round. I got something for you," Coach Orion said. He had made me go and find everyone and bring them to his office, Ducks only, oh, and Gunnar. "Banks sent me a letter a few days ago, he asked me to read it out to you so I am.

Hi, It's Adam. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to write I suck at these. As corny as it sounds I miss you guys, and I really wish I was there. Do me a favour and win the state champ, okay? I hope I get out of this hell house soon, so I can play again."

An eerie silence hung in the air for a moment, because I think it just occurred to everyone where he was and the length of the situations. Because I've said it before and I'll say it again, no matter the amount of life we've seen we're still kids, and none of us deserve this, especially not Adam. He's had it tougher than any of us, and we take it all for granted. And the letter may have been short and raw, but it was more than that it, at least that's how it seemed.

"Back to your dorms, Stahl, Conway, Ace, a word," I smiled slightly, even though Adam is gone we still never call her Banks.

"I spoke to Gordon on the phone the other day," he said as the others began to file out. "He wants the three of you to know about his progress so far, according to his supervisor he barely talks, he never raises his hand in class, doesn't talk to the therapists, he's been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, severe depression and anxiety, anger management issues and severe PTSD. I had a feeling you would be able to read in between the lines of his little note, better than the others."

"PTSD and Asperger's, are they major problem's, you know, one's that require psychological help?" Bella asked.

"It depends on the severity, and the person. There's one more thing that he sent me addressed to you. Read it later."

"Okay, can we go now?"

"Yes, oh and tell the others we're having practices in the afternoons as well for the rest of the play-offs."

…

"When are we allowed to go and see him?" I asked, as we made our way back to Bella's dorm. Portman was waiting for us at the door.

"So…"

"I don't know, Ms Mackay told me that she and Coach went to see him last week, but it wasn't good," Bells said. She unlocked the door and flopped onto the bed.

Gunnar opened the letter and we leant over and began to read.

_Was I really that stupid?_

_Was I so fucking stupid I actually thought I had a chance?_

_Because you see, it's a really tough life being Adam Banks._

_No one cares, one fucking cares what you think._

_I was never good enough, so why bother, why give me the call back or cast me, why would she even let me think that I would somehow make it. _

_Maybe ships don't sale at 15, but it sure as hell feels like they do._

_For once can't something go right, they all say it was fate and everything happens for a reason, so is that reason just to make me feel more worthless than I already do. Because if it is job well done. _

_This is an extremely hard life if you're Adam Banks._

_And I'm done, I'm so fucking done with this life and all the misfortunes that somehow always end with me._

_Worthless._

_Useless._

_Talentless._

_Unlovable._

_Everything is a lie._

_How dare you tell me that you thought I could do this. How dare you build my confidence. _

_Lies. All of it._

_I hate you, all of you. I hate life, I can't do it anymore_

_No matter how hard I try, it always comes back to what they think. Because in the end that's all life is, a popularity contest. _

_Which I can't take anymore._

_It's not fair._

_But that's the way the universe works._

_Good things don't come to me, never have, never will._

_So, you know what, I'm done._

_No more of this shit._

_Zero._

_Zilch._

_Nada._

_Nil._

Bella placed her head on my shoulder and began to cry.

"Well," I started. "At least he's being honest."

I was more of a question than a statement.

"What's he talking about when he says; 'thinking he could do it'?" Portman asked.

"He means playing professional hockey," Bella whispered. "Everyone told us we'd go all the way. Then some."

…

"Why did you ask that before, about the PTSD?" I asked Bella when the others had left.

"Adam and I were both diagnosed with severe PTSD and Asperger's when we were younger, we didn't think much of it and neither did Mum. But it sort of started a chain reaction, well, for Ads. We didn't get any treatment, or anything, but…"

"But what?"

"Just before we began to play for the Hawks, and before Dad began to drill us, the was an accident."

"I thought you said you're Dad stopped playing because of his knee?"

"He did, only temporarily though. He could have come back had he not been in the crash. We were on the phone when it happened."

"Oh."

**A/N: Ta-da! What do you think? Of Adam's letter(s)? His improvement? How will the Varsity go in the play off's? Bella's confession? Let me know your ideas and opinions.**


	3. Chapter 3

I still hadn't heard from anyone other then Michele and Gordon. I had written countless letters to the ducks and not one of them has the balls to write me back. I knew I had lost them. What hurt the most was that Gunnar never replied to my apology letter. Yesterday was valentine's day. It's supposed to be about love and I never felt so alone. I cried a lot yesterday. All the guys got something from somebody; a card, a gift. Treban even got flowers from Molly.

After services this morning, I needed to get out of there. This was mine and Treban's week to feed the animals and muck out the horse barn. Which was not the most pleasant thing to experience. Since we were dealing with horse poop. I agreed to lead the 10 horses out of the barn to the pasture and then go and feed the ducks. I gave each of the wild ducks some of the duck feed each, Henry was a little slow behind me so I put some down for him to feed on when he got to where I was at. I had just gotten finished with the last of the ducks when I turned around and saw a big goose came and ate all that was for Henry. "You big stupid goose that wasn't for you. That was for Henry, he is just a baby. How dare you take food from a baby?" The goose didn't seem to care, he just went on his way trying to get more food from the ducks. Luckily they all ate there's pretty quickly. "Here Henry take some more, but eat it quick," I said as I put down some more feed down. Henry ate it quickly and I smiled at him. "You know your quite the duck. Probably my friend, my only friend." After Henry was finished eating he quacked at me and I reached out a gloved hand to him, he brought his body toward my hand and let me pet his back. It was a cool and neat experience.

I was in a pretty bad funk the next day until after school, "Hey Adam you received a letter today," Georgia said. I was excited to read the return address was from Minneapolis. I thought that maybe Gunnar finally returned one of the countless letters that I sent to him. I quickly took the letter from my mailbox that I received when I checked in and headed down to my room to read my letter.

Dear Cake Eater;

How are you doing? I had tried for almost a month to get a hold of you to see how you were doing. But for some reason the phone was disconnected. Last week I went to the Eden Hall Ducks vs the Blake Bears hockey game and ran into Mrs. Conway. Anyway, she told me what happened. You having to go to a special school and Coach, Ms. MacKay moving back out to Cali THAT SUCKS!

I was sad to see your name not even mentioned on the roaster. I guess you're officially off the team. I am sorry that happened to you. Anyway, things are still the same in good ole Minnesota. Eden Hall is making a run for a 13th state championship, it's cold as heck here and I am looking at maybe going to colleges in the deep south, I have yet to make up my mind. I heard that Charlie and Bella are still as thick as thieves. I guess the Hawks aren't doing to bad with Ace now coaching them. Not in first place but definitely not in last place.

Southwest High is the same, Terry and I are on the varsity basketball team, which makes mom happy since she doesn't have to worry so much about us getting hurt in basketball versus playing hockey. Terry has had a couple of Division 1 schools come and look at him, Duke and University of Kentucky. This is going to be some interesting circus Terry is going to be on, the next couple of years. We both have girlfriends as seen in the enclosed picture. Twins, Terry is seeing Sarah and I am with Melinda. They are both alright although Melinda is the more quiet one. Where as Sarah will tell you her opinion about everything and doesn't give a shit that you think the opposite. You would think that I would be more into Sarah then Melinda but I guess opposites attract. They are both cheerleaders, so you know where that leads.

"I wish," I said to Jessie and Terry's picture before I continued to read the letter.

Anyway, I hope you are doing better. I want you to know that I am thinking about you. Enclosed you will find a phone card from Terry and I, it's not much but I thought it would help open the lines of communication between you and the ducks. I miss you dude, I am trying to find Basketball camps out in Northern Cali this summer so I can come and see you. Even if it's for 5 minutes. Well I better go, Melinda is looking at me like I had done something wrong. I don't think that I had, since I am writing this in Study Hall.

Take care of yourself Cake Eater. I want to go one on one with you when I do see you again.

Your Best Friend,

Jesse M. Hall

I smiled at the letter; at least I had one friend that cared for me. I tucked the phone card in my wallet. I couldn't wait until next Sunday, when my section of the house could make and receive calls from family and friends. We could get a phone call at anytime from our parents and guardians. But Sunday was the only day of the week that we could make phone calls to other people. I only had a half an hour slot but I knew who I was going to make my phone call to: Gunnar, we needed to talk.

Sunday could not come fast enough, I had periodically throughout the day and the week check my wallet to make sure that my phone card was still there. I had remembered the phone number to mine, I mean Charlie and Gunnar's room. The phone rang once, twice, three times and was finally picked up.

"Hello" came the familiar Icelandic voice, also known as Gunnar.

"Hey Gunnar its Adam," I said.

"Adam, how are vou are vou feeling better?" Gunnar asked.

"Yes so much better. I miss you, you miss me?" I asked.

"Ves, I do miss vou, very much," Gunnar said.

"Did you get my letters, I sent?" I asked.

"Veah, I sorry. I hadn't had time to reply. It's been busy, have piles and piles of vork to get done, before mid-terms." Gunnar said.

"Mid-terms are this week?" I asked with a start.

"No, next week, and then there's this thing called spring break? But it's not spring, I don't understand," Gunnar said.

"Well they call it spring break, because it goes from winter to spring during the break," I said with a smile.

"Oh, okay. I guess," Gunnar said.

"Where is Charlie, I thought he would be studying with you," I asked.

"Charlie is with Bella studying, at least I hope he is studying his books and not Bella," Gunnar said.

"Me too, I don't want what happened to Bella last year happen again," I said.

"Vhat do you mean?" Gunnar asked.

"What I mean is, never mind it's hard to explain over the phone," I said.

"So, vou doing better?" Gunnar asked.

"Yeah, so much better. Look what are your plans for spring break? Because I am so ready to come home. No one is nice to me and no one cares for me here," I said.

"Vell I don't know, we have the playoffs but after that I don't know. I'd probably go stay at Charlie's. Or maybe Goldberg's I don't know," Gunnar said.

"What if you came and saw me in California and we take me home?" I asked.

"Vell, I don't know. I have no idea vhere this place is," Gunnar said.

"You have the computer and internet. I would pay I have some left over money in my savings account. Please Gunnar, Please?" I asked.

54m ago

"Vhat would you do? You can't afford to re-enroll at Eden," Gunnar asked.

"Yeah, I figured that I would either stay at Charlie's or Jesse's house. If they said no then there's Grandma Bank's or Grandma Le Brie's. Go to public school for the next 18 months. Then I would try out for Junior's you only have to be 16. Unfortunately, I won't make the deadline because I wasn't born by August 31st. But that is okay, I am going to need the next 18 months to get me back into hockey shape. I have love handles now, I am starting to look like Goldberg," I said as I pinched my love handles that was getting lovelier by the day. I was putting on weight and not able to take it off.

"Vhat are love handles?" Gunnar asked.

"Oi vey," I said.

"Oi vey?" Gunnar asked.

I took a very deep breath before I said, "Love handles is extra fat around my mid-section and lower back. It sucks because I am not supposed to be fat, I am supposed to be a star. Right now I look disgusting. If you were to see me right now, I guarantee you would dump me in a heartbeat."

"Come on Adam, you can not possibly be that bad," Gunnar said.

"I am. What's worse is I am getting bat wings and a double chin. I AM FAT! I AM A PORKER!" I yelled at him.

"So vhat are you going to have to do," Gunnar asked.

"Well I am going to have to restrict my calories, train in the gym and hit the ice, a lot, " I said.

"You can't do this there?" Gunnar asked.

"No, they only have two treadmills and a couple of stationary bikes. Great for a cardio workout, not great to lose fat. It will stick to me like rice on water. The cook here wouldn't know what a healthy diet is if it hit her on the head," I said.

I then heard a door open and closed and Gunnar said "Vah," to the person who just walked into the room. "Charlie says hello," Gunnar said.

"Tell him hi back," I said. Gunnar then turned to Charlie and relayed the message.

"Who's Grandma Le Brie?" Gunnar asked.

"My mom's mom. I am sure she would take me in. She loves me more than anything. She lives in Lowry Hill East, I would be going to school with Jessie and Terry. Luckily Southwest High has a top notch strength and conditioning program," I said.

"What about Grandma Banks?" Gunnar asked.

"Ugh, Hopkins school district. A little too close to my parents in Edina," I said.

"So you would go to your Grandma Banks…" Gunnar started to say

"If I didn't have a choice," I interrupted.

"I don't know, I've never dealt vith this before," Gunnar said.

"Please Gunnar, Please I am begging you. I am all better I swear I won't cut again I promise," I said, I started to get tears coming out of my eyes.

"How vould ve get vou out of there?" Gunnar asked.

"Maybe you could pretend to be my long lost cousin and you have come to over take my care at home. Say that I am really needed at home. Then they would have to release me," I said.

"I don't know I don't want to get into trouble that vould make me loose my scholarship and send me on the next plane flight home," Gunnar said.

"You won't be loosing your scholarship and you wouldn't be sent home. I am telling you this will work you would have to trust in the plan," I said.

"Are vou even sure vou could make Juniors. It sounds really hard," Gunnar asked.

"I am positive that I could make juniors. You could try out too and we would be together," I said.

"Being together sounds nice, because I really miss vou," Gunnar said.

"I miss you too, so much," I said.

"Vhat about Coach Bombay. Doesn't he get a say in this?" Gunnar asked.

"No, Coach Bombay and Michele haven't seen me in 5 weeks. They don't care about me anymore. They have too much going on with the new baby coming," I said.

"I see," Gunnar said.

"So can you help me out? I want to be with you and kiss you and make love to you," I said.

"I vould like that too.' The phone was silent for a moment all I could hear was his breathing and Charlie in the background digging through what I assumed was his desk, 'Alright I vill see vhat I can do," Gunner said.

I smiled as I said, "That's great Gunner thank you."

"Veah, So what else is going on?"

We spend the next 23 minutes on the phone, talking and figuring out the plan. I knew that I had enough to get Gunnar to Reno, Nevada. Once Gunnar was in Reno he would get a cab here which was a 2 hour car ride. Then after we got me checked out of this place We would thumb a ride back to Sacramento and take the train home. Nobody would ever think to look at for us on the train. We would get on the train in Sacramento at 11:59 pm and ride the rails until 3:32 pm the next day. We would spend an hour in Portland, Oregon waiting for our next train and be on the 4:45pm Empire for that day, with any luck we would be home by the 19th of March. Then I would have 2 weeks to establish residency and get me enrolled for school for the last of the term. It would suck more than anything else when my high school would face Eden Hall, but we will deal with that as it came.

Charlie's POV

I waited for Gunnar to get off the phone with Adam. There was something that was bothering me about what he said to Adam, "Alright, I vill see vhat I can do." What did he mean? This was more important than getting my stuff for the Biology midterm that I was going to study with Bella. I had to come back to the dorm and get my notecards and I was going to go back to the library. When he finally got off the phone I asked; "So what is going on with Adam?"

"Vhat do you mean?" Gunnar asked.

"Gunnar did Adam,' I gulped, ' Did Adam ask you do something. Because I am bothered by what you said," I said.

"Vhat did I say?" Gunnar asked.

"You said that you will see what you can do. Tell me Gunnar what is going on?" I asked.

"Alright Charlie, sit down,' After I sat down at at my desk, Gunnar continued; 'Adam vants to come home, he says that he is all better. That he von't cut again."

"What do you mean he wants to come home? You didn't just promise him you would bring him home, did you?" I said.

"No, I don't know how to get out to him, I would have to research it," Gunnar said.

"How would you get out to California?" I asked.

"Probably by plane, Adam said that he would take care of the other end once I got out to him," Gunnar said.

"How was Adam going to do this?" I asked.

"I don't know, really Charlie. He said that he vould figure it out," Gunnar said.

"Gunnar I don't believe you what exactly did Adam say?" I asked.

"He said something about how the group was taking a trip into Redding next week and he was going into Wells Fargo to withdraw all of the money from his savings account and sent me the plane money via western union. I would need to research what kind of plane flights I could get to get to a place called Veno, Nevada. I think and then I was to take a taxi to get up to Eagle Lake and be his long lost cousin and insist that I take him home to recover at home. Adam said that he would take care of everything from there," Gunnar said.

"Veno, veno…. Do you mean Reno, Nevada?" I asked.

"Veah," Gunnar said.

"Gunnar how can you be so stupid? He's not ready to come home, he's playing you for a fool," I said.

"But I miss him and he misses me. He says he's all better," Gunnar said.

50m ago

"No he is not better. Even his last letter to the ducks said that. Oh my God I can't believe this," I said.

"I'm going to get into trouble?" Gunnar asked.

"I don't know, but if you go through with this that's aiding and abetting. That will get you sent home," I said.

"I don't vant to go home. Charlie, vhat do I do?" Gunnar asked.

"Well first of all, don't help Adam in this plan. Second of all I need to talk to Coach about this, he's going to need to know. Third you need to come with me," I said and then we left the room.

I and Gunnar ran all the way to the library, I was glad to see Bella still there.

"What took you so long, Charlie?" Bella asked.

"Ace Ads is in trouble," I said.

"Trouble what are you talking about?" Bella asked.

"Do you want to tell her or shall I?" I asked Gunnar, he just raised his shoulders.

"What's going on guys?" Bella asked.

"Alright Long story short: Adam called here this afternoon and made plans with Gunnar for Gunnar to come and get him over spring break. Pretending to be a long lost cousin and check Ads out of rehab and bring him home," I said.

Bella's mouth dropped before she said out loud, "GUNNAR HOW COULD YOU?"

Julie, Fulton, Portman, Connie and Guy all turned from there table where they were studying for their American History Midterm to look at what was going on.

"Shhhh, Bella this is a library. You need to be quiet." Mrs. Rosco the librarian reminded us.

"Sorry Mrs. Rosco,' Bella then turned to Gunnar and said in a quiet angry voice, 'I don't believe this Gunnar how could you?"

"Adam said he was better. I think he's ready to come home," Gunnar said.

"No he is not. Even his last letter said that he wasn't better. I know my brother, he is not ready to come home. Oh my God, he is going to kill himself," Bella said and then she started to bawl. I grabbed my girlfriend and let her hang on to me. She was crying hard into my shirt. "Shh, shh its going to be okay," I said to her, Julie and Connie came over to us.

"Bella are you okay?" Julie asked with her hand on Bella's back rubbing it up and down. "What's going on, Spazway?" Connie asked.

"Its nothing to worry about its between Adam and us," I said.

"Bella?" Julie and Connie asked together.

Bella just nodded her head. "See I told you everything is going to be fine," I said.

"I don't believe you, Charles Marion Conway," Connie said and then she and Julie walked away.

"Does Coach know about this?" Bella asked once she stopped crying.

"Not yet, I hope he will take a collect phone call," I said as I, Bella and Gunnar started to walk to the entrance of the Library to make that phone call.

Gordon's POV

I was rubbing Michele's feet like a good husband when the phone rang. We had just gotten back from doing some baby shopping for the baby. I was hoping to get some of the nursery painted a neutral color other than off white to match the birch colored crib, changing table, dresser we bought and brought home today. However Michele said that her feet hurt from all of the shopping we had done today. I had yet to pull the stuff out of our 1998 Volvo 960 sedan.

"Hello?" I said.

"This is a collect call from…" I heard a computer voice tell me.

"Charlie Conway," Charlie said.

"To accept charges, say yes," the computer voice continued.

"Yeah I will accept," I said.

Once Charlie was connected I said, "Hey Charlie what's up?"

All I heard was Charlie talking really fast, Gunnar trying to butt in and Bella bawling on the phone.

"Whoa, slow down and freeze. Adam did what?" I said.

A/N: Thanks to bobcatwriter who wrote this chapter for me, I desperately needed one. What do you think of Adam's plan? The reactions? What should happen next? I'll tell you this much it involves a shopping trip, a viewing of the Breakfast Club, a runaway and a plan gone wrong


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

Gunnar had called. Called and told me no. That he wouldn't pose as my cousin. Because I needed to stay. Balderdash. Lies. All of it. I was fine. But I had a reputation to maintain.

Brave face now, don't let them see you cry.

…

"Adam, Treban!" Mike called. "We're going into town to get some stuff for a movie night, you game?"

"Why not?" Treban said looking up from his copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_.

MIKE P.O.V:

Jeremy, Georgia, Annie and I had taken the boys to Walmart in periwinkle for a little shopping for supplies and to get food for our movie night tonight. We rented the nutty professor from Blockbuster. We had all met at the front of the store at 8:25. I took a head count.

"Wait a second we're missing someone who are we missing?" I asked.

"Adam," said Treban, who was Adam's roommate.

"Have any of you seen him?"

"I saw him near the soaps and shampoos, I think he was looking at picking something up. He told us to go on without him," said Bryan.

I knew Adam's history with cutting. I also knew what was in that isle besides men's soap and shampoo, razors lots of them.

Steven seemed to notice the look on my face.

"Why, little baby Adam going to have a relapse?"

Honestly that kid was a pain, I don't even know how he found out Adam was her for cutting, he hasn't told anyone.

"Why don't you guys go ahead out to the Van's. I will find Adam and we will be out," I said. Jeremy, Georgia and Annie took the boys to the vans while I searched for Adam.

ADAM P.O.V:

Here's my theory. No one wants me not here not at home. And I wasn't lying when I spoke to Gunnar, I'm getting fat my once chiselled abs were now slowing forming a bit of a pouch, so no more dessert for me.

I scanned the isle looking at all of the different razors, if I did this right I could have it done with in a few hours. Preferably I'd drown myself in the lake but they're always watching it. Venture into the woods and finish the job there. I took off the sleeve of my coat and rolled the sleeve of my sweatshirt up. I saw the scars from my previous cuts. I know I didn't hit a major nerve. I felt around in my arm trying to find the nerve the nurses used to stick the IVs in me to keep me alive.

I heard someone shout my name. Mike. I quickly pocketed the nearest razor and walked towards his voice.

"Hey Adam, we're heading back to school. Where were you?"

"Just over there," I said gesturing to where I had come from.

"May I ask why?"

"I was, uh, thinking about shaving my face you know, because I think I'm starting to grow a bit of fuzz on my chin. Got to keep up appearances you know."

"Let me see," he said feeling my chin. "Oh, maybe a little there. Wait, no Alfredo sauce. Adam you are just like I was at 15, a guy with a baby face and honey coloured hair. I was 20 before I was able to grow a beard, besides you don't even have hair on your chest yet."

He had a point there, I had my pubic hair and hair in my armpits even that was fairly light; damn my mother.

…

"So, what brings you to this fine establishment?" I asked Treban jokingly. We were lying on our beds in the dorm procrastinating best we could. He was probably the only one who had seen the old me here, well, the freshmen year me.

"Drug abuse, not mine, my grandfather's. Dunno why I started. Anyway, Molly found out and told the school counsellors, who sent me here," he shrugged. "You?"

"Suicidal tendencies."

"Shit, I had no idea."

"It's fine."

"I don't want to intrude, but, for how long?"

"Since I was ten. I had to transfer hockey teams and my dad was not happy about it, I lost it, it sorta just became a bad habit after that. My sister and Charlie found out last year, just after my parents disowned me, then something else happened, and I couldn't take it, so I cut again and was in hospital for ages. They made me stop playing hockey and such. I was going pretty well then, I had a relapse a few months ago. My therapist Alex recommended this place. How long you been here for?"

"July last year."

"You're nearly done, huh?"

"A few more months."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Did you ever act, well, act like I did when you came?"

"At first, but it's not all bad."

"Bullshit," I screamed flying into a rage. Treban looked slightly taken a back.

"Geez, calm down," he said, backing away.

"Boys," Mike hollered from outside our room. "We're headed into town to get supplies for a movie night, you want in?"

"Whatever," I grumbled.

…

We were about five minutes into the Breakfast Club when I saw that character. The one that looks oddly like Bombay. Then all I could think about for the rest of the movie was how much fun all the Ducks and I would have teasing Bombay about it. I missed all of them, Bella, Charlie, Gunnar, Portman, Scooter, Fulton, even Averman and his stupid jokes. They were probably well into the play offs by now.

It got to the scene where Binder, Bender began to describe what it was like at his house, almost identical to my living situation in Edina. That's when I threw a little hissy fit.

And ran.

Out of the ground, into the woods.

Far away as I could.

**A/N: Here you go. What do you think? I don't now much about Sacramento so forgive me if there's no woods or anything, artistic license, right? Any way what of Adam running away? His chat with Treban? And the one with Mike? How will the Ducks and the others react? Thanks to bobcatwriter for helping me with this chapter and thank you to all those who have review**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

MIKE P.O.V:

I saw Adam throw his little hissy fit and ran out the back door. I thought he would come back in 5 minutes.

When 5 minutes turned into 10 minutes, I got worried.

I mouthed "Adam" to Jeremy, he got up and got our coats and a couple of walkie talkies. I was worried because it was 25 degrees outside, and it was dark.

"We're going to look for Adam," I said as I put on my coat and grabbed the flashlights.

"I'm coming with you," Treban said.

"Going to go look for little baby Adam. Waah waah waah," Steven said.

"Knock it off Steven or you will do extra chores," Georgia said. Kyle and Xavier both snickered with laughter. I was so glad that I was not their supervisor. I would have killed one of them with my own bare hands, if not all of them.

"Mike please be careful," Annie said.

"I will, I love you," I said.

Treban, Jeremy and I started to walk outside, there had been no snow for a few days so there was no hope of following footprints. "You two want to start looking for him, I'm going to go to the horse barn; grab Beauty," Jeremy said, he then took off for the barn.

We always kept one of the horses with a loose saddle and bridle on, for cases like this. Especially when we had a cutter like Adam.

"ADAM! ADAM! ADAM WHERE ARE YOU?" Treban yelled. We followed Adam into the woods. I was hoping that we could get to him before it was too late.

ADAM P.O.V:

I ran, I ran as far as I could as fast as I could. Which wasn't as fast as I used to be, thanks to the weight I put on. I was bawling the whole time.

_[flashback]_  
_I was 3 years old. Mum had brought me and Bella into Dad's law firm and I seemed to be doing a great job charming his co-workers, one of the older ladies told me; "You're going to be a real lady killer when you grow."_

"_What does that mean? Does it mean I hurt ladies, like my sister? Because I don't want that," I said back._

"_No, sweetheart. It means you're going to have them at your feet begging to be yours forever."_

"_Like marry them?"_

"_Yep," Mum told me._

"_Ew, girls are yucky!" I said._

_The lady laughed, if only she knew_

…_  
I was 6 years old. Bella and I had been on the Junior Hawks squad for a month now. Ollie was on the Senior Hawks squad. Bella and I were playing Ollie and Dad came out to watch. _

_I had control of the puck and went to aim it for the garbage can out on the pond behind our house as I wound up and completely missed the puck. _

_"COME ON ADAM YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A STAR. YOU CAN'T BE A STAR IF YOU CAN'T SHOOT THE PUCK!" My father yelled at me. _

_"Phillip maybe he is not cut out to be a hockey player," My mother said, I looked down at my skates that had stung almost as much as Dad's comment. _

_"NO ALL MY KIDS ARE CUT OUT TO BE HOCKEY PLAYERS. I WON'T HAVE A SISSY," My father yelled back at her._

_I was 8 years old. I had gotten a penalty shot for the Hawks. _

_"Alright Banks it's up to you. Remember it's not worth winning ..." Coach Reilly said. "If you can't win big," I said. "That's right, go get them," Coach Reilly said.  
…_

_I was 10 years old warming up for our game  
"Banks, Ace! Over here!" Coach Reilly said, we both looked at each other and then took our helmets off and skated towards the bench. I was in front and Bella was beside me we were next to a peewee hockey league official and Coach Bombay._

_"Is there a problem Coach Reilly?" said my father as he got onto the bench_

_"Oh, no, no, no. It's just a mistake," Coach Reilly said._

_"Are you these kids' father? 450 North Hennepin Avenue is that your address?" asked the league official.  
"Yes," my father said.  
"Well then, I am afraid this is no mistake. These kids are playing for the wrong team," the league official said.  
"WHAT?" Bella and I asked together  
"According to league rules Adam and Isabella Banks should be playing for District Five," the league official said.  
"My children are Hawks, not Ducks," My father said.  
"Is this your doing, Gordon?" Coach Reilly said.  
"I'll expect to see them at our next game. We'll have a uniform waiting for both of you," Coach Bombay said.  
"No way," Bella and I said together.  
"My kids would rather not play than play for your team," my father said, with a finger pointed to them.  
I looked at my father in shock and awe.  
"Fine, if that's the way you want it. But remember, if Adam and Isabella plays for the Hawks, you will have to forfeit every game for the rest of the season. Boy, I'd hate to see that." Coach Bombay said and then he walked away.  
"Look, I'm sorry this had to happen, but you can see here on the map. Its very clearly delineated." The league official said.  
Bella and I looked at the map with my father.  
"This isn't fair!" I said as tears started to come out of my eyes.  
"I'm sorry this happened," the league official said.  
"Yeah, sure.' My father said to the official and then he turned to us and said. 'Go get changed, meet me out front."  
Bella followed dad's orders, I stayed.  
"GO NOW ADAM JONATHAN BANKS, AND QUIT YOUR DAMN CRYING!" My father said.  
A half hour later we were walking into the kitchen. "Get your stuff put away and get up to your rooms," my father said.  
"Hey what's going on, Ollie and I were getting ready to come to the twins' game?" Mom asked.  
"I need a drink. GET IN YOUR ROOM OLIVER!" my father said.  
"Why I didn't do anything wrong?" Ollie said.  
"NOW!" My father barked.  
"So what's going on?" mom asked as she popped the top of a beer bottle.  
"You're not going to believe this, the league put Adam and Bella on the wrong team. Apparently, they are supposed to be Ducks not Hawks," My father said and then he took a swig out of the bottle.  
"What are you doing up here? Dad said to go to our rooms," Ollie whispered.  
"Shut up!" Bella whispered. I was trying to cry silently.  
Ollie took one look at me and said; "You are such a cry baby."  
"So does this mean that they are going to switch teams?" Mom said.  
"OVER MY COLD DEAD BODY, THEY ARE GOING TO SWITCH TEAMS!" My father yelled.  
"Maybe this was for the best. I know you didn't get to end your career the way you wanted, thanks to that idiot O'Callahan. But I didn't want my kids to be hockey players. Maybe this is for the best," Mom said.  
"NO SERAPHINA MY KIDS WERE BORN TO BE HOCKEY PLAYERS!" My father yelled.  
_

_Later at dinner  
"No, The two of you will not be playing for him. You're Hawks not Ducks," my father spat  
"We just wanna play hockey dad," Bella whispered.  
"Not for him, you're not."  
"Please, dad?" Bella asked. I was crying.  
"No, That's my final word you understand? Now I have to get ready to leave for Atlanta in the morning," father said as he threw his napkin down on his plate and got up from the table.  
A couple of nights later Bella and I played our first game as ducks. I was jealous when my number had been taken from me and I was given a new number 99. I looked over at Bella's Jersey number 63 I. Banks. "At least you get to keep your number," I spat. After the game Dad was furious when we got home, he sent us to our rooms. I ran upstairs crying, I was so mad that I took a swipe at the glass that was sitting on my nightstand from last night. It tumbled to the floor and shattered. I took the shards I could find, and I turned it over in my fingers a couple of times. I had an idea, I went into the bathroom and began to slice through the flesh of my wrists, it was incredible, like I was on top of the world. After I bandaged myself, cleaned up my mess and hid the shards in my night stand. I switched to razor's about 6 months after the first cut that high was even more powerful than using the broken glass._

…

_I was 14 years old. I was so pissed at Riley for raping my sister I kicked everything in my line of sight. I locked myself in the bathroom and screamed at my reflection: "YOU JERK HOW DARE YOU LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOUR SISTER, YOUR BABY SISTER?" I then crumpled to the floor crying.  
"Adam are you in there?" I heard Charlie at the door. "Adam come out please, we need to talk," I drowned him out with my screams and sobs while I was fumbling for my razors in the pocket of my jeans. I held out my wrists and slashed new cuts, not reopening old ones like I had before. The blood trickled from my arms onto the floor. I knew I wasn't helping Bella or myself but it helped. A little. I then wiped up the blood on the tiles in a quick hurry, threw my jumper on so no one would see the stains on my white sleeves and stuffed my razor box into my pocket._

_"You are a worthless little piece of shit!" My father yelled punching my face. "How dare you go against me, how dare you lie to me!"  
"Phillip, He's your son!" my mother shrieked.  
"Not anymore he's not. We are disowning him," my father yelled and with that he knocked me off my feet and threw me out the door._

…_  
"Adam you have to stop this. Stop putting your life in danger. Give me the knife Ads, please," Bella said with tears running down her face.  
…_

_I was 15 years old.  
"Get away from me you fag," she screamed. "And take your boyfriend too!" she added gesturing to Gunnar.  
[end flashbacks]_

I knew in the end no one and I mean no one gave a shit about me. I figured I ran far enough, it was time to do it. I grabbed the package of razors that I took, I knew it was stealing and stealing was wrong. But in the end it didn't matter, I needed to cut. I opened the package and took apart the first razor, when I heard: ""ADAM! ADAM! ADAM WHERE ARE YOU?" It sounded like Treban. In fact I was positive it was Treban. I didn't care I was bawling so hard. I was:  
WORTHLESS  
FAG  
USELESS  
IDIOT  
NOT MY SON  
NOT MY BROTHER  
HOPELESS

So, I ran as far as I could away from the voices proclaiming my name.

MIKE P.O.V:

Treban ran up to me.

"I thought I saw him," he said. "But he ran, he's way to fast."

I pulled out my walkie-talkie, "Annie? Annie?"

"Mike did you find him?"

"No. I need you to call Gordon and Michele. Stat."

"On it."

**A/N: Another chapter for you all! What do you think? Credit to bobcatwriter for helping me with this. How will it all turn out? What will Adam do? How will everyone react? Let me know your answers, thoughts and ideas.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

BELLA P.O.V:

I was skating along the ice with Gunnar, Portman, Charlie and Scooter waiting for Orion to turn up and when he did it was with a frown, "Ace, I need you in here quickly!"

I skated over to the edge of the ice and made my way to the office. He handed me the phone.

"Ace, Ace is that you?"

"Coach Bombay?"

"Bella, Adam ran away."

"What?"

…

"Bella where are you going?" Charlie yelled, chasing after me as I ran through the parking lot.

"I'm going home, calling Ollie and driving out to North California."

"But the play-offs," he said catching up to me. "We won't make it anywhere without you."

"Charlie!"

"All I'm saying is hockey's your life, it's important."

"More important than my brother?"

He stayed silent.

"He could be dead, or worse."

"If Adam wants to die no one can stop him."

"Are you saying you don't care?"

"Of course not, I'm just saying hockey comes first, and well…"

"You jerk!" I screamed, storming away.

"Bella."

"Don't you dare try and follow me, Charles Alexander Conway, we're done, you and I, done."

CHARLIE P.O.V:

I stopped short.

"What?"

"You heard me, you're dumped!"

I could feel the tears coming.

I loved her, and their she was walking away from me.

_Stay strong Charlie, only sissies cry._

But I couldn't help it, I fell to my knees and let the dam burst.

ADAM P.O.V:

I ran until I couldn't run no-more, I don't know how far I ran, but I ran for a while. I was not worth anything anymore. I thought that maybe I could take my life up in the tree, then they would not know I was there, unless of course after my body was done bleeding out I fell out of the tree. But by then I would be dead.

"ADAM?... ADAM?... ADAM?... ADAM?" I heard a voice that I didn't recognize. I stayed quiet, I knew they were looking for me. The voice over time got fainter and fainter. They were walking in the opposite direction. As soon as I didn't hear the voice anymore, I knew this was it, I needed to get up into the tree. I picked a very tall pine tree they would not think to look up. Especially if I stayed quiet if they were nearby. The lowest branch was good 4 feet above my head. Not many people know this but when I was about 4 I used to be quite the tree climber. I would climb the trees in Grandma Bank's backyard. Of course I had aged almost dozen years and put on a good 100 plus pounds. I wasn't sure of how much I gained, I know I had gained a lot since I was four. Especially in the last year or two. I jumped and missed, by a lot. I jumped again and again and still missed. "Come on FATSO BANKS GET UP THERE!" I yelled at myself. I had more Adjectives and Nouns to describe me now, besides what I had from earlier:

Fat  
Large  
Fatso  
Fatty  
Lard butt  
Porker  
Pig  
Whale  
Hippo  
Shamoo  
Cow  
Adam "I weigh a ton at least" Banks.  
Jumbo Fries Banks  
Cake Eater that eats all the real cake.

Michelle's POV

When the call came in from Lakeside Academy I got really worried about Adam. I and Gordon didn't even have much time to properly pack more than one bag for both of us. I threw in a bunch of our clothes into the largest suitcase we had. I wasn't even sure if I packed the correct amount of stuff. We had to get out of Yuba City and quick. Once we were on the highway Gordon did some serious speeding. Like going 80 in 55, amazing we didn't get picked up by a cop or got into an accident. We got up to Lakeside Academy in a little over 2 hours instead of the 4 it usually took.

…

Bela had flown in with Ollie just over an hour ago.

"Have you heard anything," she said, running up to us. "Is he okay?"

Gordon shook his head, as Bella flew into Ollie's waiting arms, his eyes were stricken with terror. One couldn't blame him though, he had come home for a few months to visit his family only to find his little brother in rehab and that said brother had run away.

ADAM P.O.V:

I eventually managed to haul myself up the tree, fumbling with my razors as I did. I was at least ten feet into the air, then I heard a twig crack on the ground nearby. I leant over the side of the branch to look…

And I fell.

I hit the ground with an almighty thud, pain ran through my mid-section and my head and left ankle. I looked down at my foot and closed my eyes slightly, my ankle had already begun to turn purple and the bone was jutting out of my skin.

I crawled over behind a nearby bush and passed out from the pain.

**A/N: There you go. Thoughts? Thanks to bobcatwriter. Will Adam be found? What will happen if he does? What will Charlie do next? What of the other ducks?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

BELLA P.O.V:

People were everywhere, there was an ambulance, two police cars and the entirety of Lakeside Academy standing outside waiting to hear my older brother of 17 minutes' fate.

They had found him just over half an hour ago, lying behind a bush. We knew he had a dislocated ankle and a nasty gash on his forehead, but when he woke up on the stretcher, he told them it hurt to breathe.

We hoped for the best but feared the worst.

In the end they decided to airlift him to the nearest hospital.

The doctors sent him into emergency surgery for his foot straight away.

ADAM P.O.V:

When I woke up, they were there. Bella, Coach, Michele, Alex. It was the circle of life, I guess. Them by my bed in some hospital wear I've just been unconscious. Ollie, Mike, Annie, Treban and Dr Binford were there too, but that's not my point.

I looked down at my foot, it felt strange and sore at the same time. Know I knew why there was a moon boot strapped onto my leg and when I lifted my hand to my head, I could feel a bandage wrapped around it.

"What happened," I asked groggily, rubbing my eyes.

"What the fuck, Adam Jonathan Banks! You scared the shit out of me! I thought we were past all this! Would you quit acting like a child!" Bella screamed at me.

"You have a mild concussion, large gash on the back of your head, a dislocated ankle and two cracked ribs," a passing doctor said, checking my chart.

I looked up at Dr Binford. He didn't look pleased. Neither was Gordon for that matter. Annie and Michele were relieved that I was found. Michele cried bucket loads of tears over me. Dr. Binford had my razor blades that stole from Walmart. "Adam, I am severely disappointed in you son. How could you do such a thing?" He asked.

I stayed quiet.

"Speak Adam," Gordon yelled at me.

He never yelled at me, I was taken aback.

After I was quiet for 10 minutes, Dr. Binford said: "As soon as you're out of here you are on house arrest. You are to go nowhere without an adult that would be there to supervise you. We are going to be doing a thorough search for more blades throughout your room and the facility. Also, there will be no allowance, no phone calls, extra chores, extra sessions with Dr. Freeman, no fun group activities," Dr. Binford said.  
"THIS SUCKS!" I said.  
"ADAM!" Dr. Binford, Gordon, Annie, Mike, Bella, Ollie, Treban and Michele said together.  
"We also know all about what was said in your phone call to Minnesota," Dr. Binford said.  
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT, THAT'S AN INVASION OF PRIVACY! TELL THEM THAT'S AN INVASION OF PRIVACY, Gordon." I said.  
"It's in the contract that you and I signed, Adam," Gordon said.  
"WHAT?" I yelled.  
"Paragraph 5, subsection D line 3: All students are subjected to having phone calls monitored or recorded. Line 4: All students are required to have a thorough search and seizure of any prohibited items such as guns, ammunition, knives, razors, blades, smoking materials, drinking materials, offensive or drug paraphernalia, sharp scissors, needles, and anything else that might become questionable to the safety and security of the rest of the student body and staff. Are those not your initials?" Dr. Binford said as he handed my contract to me, to look over.  
"Yeah it is my initials," I said.  
"Adam did you not read the contract?" Gordon asked.  
I stayed silent, and then I whispered "No."  
"Oh Adam you're supposed to read contract before you sign anything," Gordon said.  
"Did you read it?" I said.  
"Yes I did," Gordon said.  
"As did I," Michelle said.  
"This is such horse shit. You get treated better in PRISON! WHY DON'T YOU SEND ME THERE?" I yelled.  
"Although it would be a great idea. It would also be a perfectly good use of wasted red tape." Dr. Binford said.  
"I don't believe this," I said.  
"You also have to wear this while on house arrest," Mike said as he attached something to my leg.  
"WHAT'S THAT?" I yelled at him.  
"It's a tracking device Adam, you will have it removed after you complete your 3 weeks of house arrest," Dr. Binford said.  
"This completely SUCKS!" I yelled.

BELLA P.O.V:

All the adults were in the waiting room talking about what to do with Adam, Treban had left about a half an hour ago. He knew who I was apparently from the photos on Adam's wall. I had spoken to Gunnar on the phone and Charlie apologised profusely in the background.

…

I sat by Adam's bed as he slept. I decided to turn on the radio and listen.

_All the life she has seen  
All the meaner side of me  
They took away the prophet's dream  
For a profit on the street_

_Now she's stronger than you know  
A heart of steel starts to grow_

I began to sing along quietly.

_All his life he's been told  
He'll be nothing when he's old  
All the kicks and all the blows  
He won't ever let it show_

_'Cause he's stronger than you know  
A heart of steel starts to grow_

It was funny how my whole life story could be summed up in a few verses.

_When you've fighting for it all your life  
You've been working every day and night  
That's how a superhero learns to fly  
Every day, every hour, turn the pain into power_

_Oh-oh, oh, oh_

Everything we'd fought for these last few years. Uncanny. No one knew what he was going through, what I was going through. I could only stop to imagine how hard it must be because Adam, had been through it all. It was too much.

Adam began to stir. I stroked his hair and tried to mop some of the forming beads of sweat off his forehead.

I wish this would all stop.

**A/N: Merry Christmas y'all. I hope you enjoyed, credit to bobcatwriter. Also, credit to **_**The Script **_**who own that song **_**Superheroes**_**, I know it wasn't out in '98 but whatever. Let me know your thoughts and ideas, because Adam has a long way to go yet.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

I had been back at lakeside for a few weeks now and life had never been harder…

And that was coming from me!

I had spent the last couple of weeks doing endless amounts of chores, all whilst on crutches I might add. My ribs were on the mend and the doctors decided my concussion was fine after I stopped vomiting in the helicopter. No phone calls or any communication to the outside world. And I hadn't heard anything from Charlie, Gunnar or the Ducks even when I was in hospital.

The boys were worse than usual, with all the extra chores Dr Binford was making me do, they had even more reasons to mock me.

...

I was in the laundry, yep, that was one of my jobs, doing everyone else's dirty washing. They delivered it to me and I sorted it.

"Oi, Adam. I got my socks back today and they were the ugliest shade of pink, and funnily enough Parker's red shirt looked slightly lacking in colour. Coincidence? I don't fucking think so!"

Steven.

"Fuck off!" I said, using my crutches to pull myself up.

"You wanna take this outside faggot?!"

I plopped back down into my chair. He knew I wasn't allowed.

"I didn't think so."

…

Dr Binford came in and took the tracker off my leg and handed me a radio.

"What's this for?"

"April 21st, Gordon said your team was playing, in the state champ."

BELLA P.O.V:

I was sitting in the change room.

Right in front of my locker.

We all were.

All my gear was on, bar my jersey. I had it turned over and I was fingering the number on the back.

63.

I. BANKS.

It felt weird. I had never been so nervous. In a way there seemed to be more pressure here than in any other game we had ever played.

What felt the worse is that I knew Ads wouldn't be watching. That was the one consistent in myh life before this.

Having my family watching me play. Dad was always there, for big games like this. Mum would even come along. And Ollie, he'd make fun of everything I did wrong afterwards, but that's what I looked forward to.

It was always me and Adam on the ice. The Golden Duo on the Hawks. ABC line up at the Goodwill Games. Third line together on Varsity.

No anymore.

I shouldn't really be worried, I just coached the Hawks to their first peewee champ since I played for the Ducks.

Maybe it wasn't nerves, maybe it was just because it was new. My current scenario.

_[flashback]_

"_Listen," Charlie started. "You guys had an unfair advantage last time. You had some of us, the Banks twins."_

"_You can keep Banksie, he never had the heart of a warrior anyway," Riley drawled. "Ace, however," he said grabbing my wrist and pulling me over. "Well, we're keeping her. We won her fair and square."_

_The Ducks looked fit to explode._

"_I am not a prize to be one!"_

…

"_Hey Dad," I said, walking into the study._

_We sat in silence for a few moments._

"_You lost. YOU LOST TO A TEAM OF FRESHMEN! DO YOU THINK I LET YOU GO TO THAT SCHOOL JUST SO YOU COULD PLAY AROUND? THIS IS SERIOUS ISABELLA LILLIAN. HOW DARE YOU WEAR THAT NUMBER AND PERFORM SO POORLY," he said gesturing to his framed North Stars jersey. 63, same as me._

"_I'm sorry."_

"_You should be."_

_[end flashback]_

That's wear I struggled. I had been taught to showboat, to play for myself. Occasionally Coach Reilly would tell us to put on a show for the spectators, try to win of course, but give them show.

That was one of the first things Bombay had told us when we came to the Ducks; "Play for the name on the front, and people will start to remember the name on the back."

…

"Alright team gather round," Coach Orion said. "Everyone one in this room has had a hard year," I could see people's eyes flit to me, Gunnar and Charlie. "We deserve this more than anything now. Captain?"

"Alright Ducks, you know what to do, Ace centre, Gunnar right wing, I'm left, Portman, Fulton defence. C'mon, let's go win ourselves a state champ."

We trudged out of the rooms onto the ice. I saw the rest of the Ducks who hadn't made Varsity sitting in the stands, at least one of them wouldn't be playing with us next year, my money was on Goldberg. They had one their championship the week before; and to celebrate the Varsity had treated the JV to dinner.

I looked out into the crowd. Ollie gave me a wink, Mum smiled and Dad bave me a thumbs up and continued talking to what appeared to be college scouts.

I was only fifteen. I shouldn't have to think about that yet.

**A/N: I hope you like it. The timeline might not be quite right and I'm sorry. How will the Ducks go without Adam? Where to next? Thoughts? Ideas? Let me know.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

0:25 PM April 25th, 1998 Michele's POV

The baby was 5 days late. I was so so ready to have this child and see my feet again. My doctor didn't want me to travel in the car for more than an hour for the last 6 weeks. Needless to say I haven't seen Adam up at Lakeside since March 15th. For obvious reasons since I could have literally given birth at any moment. The cell phone coverage wasn't the greatest up in the mountains. I didn't want to give birth on the side of the road in our Volvo. Luckily my dad and Gordon went to go and get Adam from Lakeside leaving my mother to cook the entire Easter dinner by herself. Eleanor wasn't coming out to California for Easter. She wanted to be here for the birth of the baby to teach me the ropes of being a new mom. Adam looked good for Easter, much more relaxed then he was the last time I saw him nearly a month prior. Gordon even told me that Adam had started to open up to Dr. Freeman, the other councillors and a few of the boys, including his roommate Treban. Apparently Henry and Adam were inseparable, ever since Adam defended Henry to a Canadian Goose. The doctor told me on Friday that I was just a centimeter dilated, so it would be at least a good couple of days before I gave birth. When I went to bed last night it was the normal cramping contractions nothing to be concerned about. I had been having them on and off for the last day and a half, but it was way too early to head to the hospital. Since sometimes I would be 20, 30, 45 or 90 minutes in between contractions. This child had to be a boy, because he was taken his sweet ole time getting here. Gordon wasn't so sure if we shouldn't go to the hospital when he came and joined me in bed an hour after I went to bed, I moaned.

"Contractions," Gordon asked me as he passed through our room on his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

"Mmm-hmm," I said as I closed my eyes to the pain.

"They close together?" Gordon asked as he turned on the faucet to the sink . He knew the rules of when it was time to head to the hospital, thanks to Lamaze class. The 5-1-1 rule, where contractions were coming every 5 minutes, last for a minute each and been that way for 1 hour.

"po we deed to bead to the bospital?" Gordon asked as he was brushing his teeth. He always did that, tried to talk to me while brushing his teeth. He never understood that I couldn't understand him while he was doing that, it was one of those things that could drive me nuts.

"What Gordon, I didn't hear you?" I asked.

Gordon spat his toothpaste out before he said, "Do we need to head to the hospital?"

"No this is the first contraction that I have had in 30 minutes. You might as well go to sleep and enjoy the last few nights of sleep you are going to get for a while," I said as I rubbed my belly.

"Are you sure because we can go to the hospital?" Gordon said as he stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed.

"Yeah I am probably not much further along than I was yesterday," I said.

"Alright, but you will let me know if you change your mind, right?" Gordon asked as he kissed my cheek.

"No, I am just going to wait and let you discover the baby if I have it in the middle of the night. Of course I will Gordon," I said.

Gordon sighed heavily before saying, "Alright, Goodnight baby Hans Robert Bombay,' Gordon placed a kiss on my belly next to his hand then he kissed me, 'Goodnight Michele."

"Goodnight Gordon, Goodnight my son," I said to both Gordon and our child.

5 hours later

The contractions were getting progressively closer and closer together, we were running about every fifteen minutes in between contractions. "Gordon, Gordon!" I said as I shook him.

"What?" Gordon asked.

"It's almost time to head for the hospital," I said

"How far apart are they?" Gordon asked as he sat up in the bed and placed his hands on my stomach trying to feel the baby

"About every 15 minutes," I said.

"Okay, so not quite time yet. But we can track the contractions right?" Gordon said.

10:45 am Gordon's POV

Michelle had called the doctor at about 9:15 to consult when we should be heading to the hospital. The Doctor said that it wasn't quite time yet to go but probably in another hour or two. Boy was she ever right on that one. At 10:00 the contractions kicked it into a higher gear and started to come every 5 minutes. At 10:45 I decided that it was time to head to the hospital and have this baby. I gathered up Michele's bag's and put them into the car. "Don't forget the car seat Gordon, we are going to need that to come home," Michele said to me as I went into the baby's room that was fully decorated in puppies and kittens for the last month. Adam even helped me put the rocker and ottoman and the changing table together, while he was home on Easter break. He was rather quite good about following the instructions and using the right tools to put the furniture together. Granted we couldn't paint actual dogs and kittens on the wall, but I thought that once we returned to Minnesota that was something we could do with the baby's room at home. As we were heading to the hospital I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't shake, I felt like I was forgetting something.

3:25 pm Adam's POV  
Parent's day was nearly over and Gordon didn't come up and visit me or call me. I decided two hours ago I was going to call them. I had been trying both the house phone and Gordon's cellphone. I was on the phone calling the house again, hoping just hoping that they were home. I heard the answering machine answer; "You have reached the home of Gordon Bombay, Michele MacKay and Adam Banks we are not home right now, please leave a message and someone will return your call soon." I hung up the phone angrily.

"Still can't get a hold of them?" Mike asked.

"No, I knew they didn't care about me. No one gives a shit about me," I said.

"Now Adam you know that is not true," said Jeremy. He was tall and thin like I was and 25.

"It is so true. They dump me in this Godforsaken place and forget all about me," I said.

"Come on Adam, there has to be a logical explanation. Maybe Michele went into labour. You can't exactly stop labour to have a phone conversation," Mike said.

"Yeah right. They don't give a shit about me," I said.

"You are going to feel like a fool, if they do call you," Jeremy said.

I got up and went to the coat rack to get my coat and head outside.

"Where are you going?" Mike asked.

"OUT! IS THAT OKAY WITH YOU, MOTHER?" I yelled at him.

I walked to the backdoor and for good measure I slammed it shut after I went through it. The damned crutches made it more difficult It was raining and chilly the same as yesterday, we haven't seen the sun in about a week. I walked down to the lake, Henry the duck came up to me and started to quack.

"Hi Henry," I said sorrowful.

"Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack," Henry said.

"It's Gordon and Michele. Today is Parents day, they didn't show up. They didn't call either, I knew they didn't really care about me. Nobody cares about me not Gunner, Charlie or Bella. I am on my own I guess. I'm worthless," I said.

"Quack?" Henry said.

I smiled before I said, "I guess you still care about me." I petted him, then I heard a twig snap. I quickly turned and saw Jeremy.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you," Jeremy said.

"What do you want," I asked.

"Just wanted to make sure you were going to be okay," Jeremy said.

I shrugged my shoulders and turn back towards the lake.

"You know what my favorite thing to do when I was a kid?" Jeremy asked.

"What?" I asked.

"Skipping rocks off the pond," Jeremy said.

"It's not a pond its a lake," I said.

"Same difference it's a body of water. I bet I could get it to skip five times," Jeremy said.

Jeremy threw a rock and it skipped off the lake five times creating five circles.

"Wow," I said.

"You try?" Jeremy asked as he handed me a rock.

I threw the rock and it sunk right to the bottom.

"You have to throw it sideways. Try again," Jeremy said, as he handed me another rock.

I threw the rock and it skipped twice. Two sets of circles formed.

"See the circles, they start out small and get bigger. It's like life you start out small and get bigger. Each circle represents your life, the smallest circle is you then next biggest circle is your family and the third is your friends and the biggest circle is people whom you associate with that won't fall into either of the other two circles. Gordon and Michele both care about you, I am sure they will call you soon. I will let you be to think about it," Jeremy said.

Jeremy left and I sat out on the deck and thought about it and to calm down. I spent almost an hour out only to be chased inside by a rainstorm.

4:14 pm Gordon's POV

Michele had been in the 2nd stage of labor for the last two hours. She had been pushing the kid out for a good 25 minutes.

"I can't do this Gordon. It HURTS," she screamed at me.

"Michele baby you are almost there. He is going to be born any minute now," I said.

"Alright Michele, on the next contraction you are going to bring your baby into the world. On three you push, one... two... three... push push push push push, bare down Michele," said. Dr. Green

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six..." The nurse was counting ever so slowly.

"keep going baby you're almost there," I said as Michele continued to bare down.

"Seven... Eight..." The nurse said.

"Alright stop pushing the head's out. You need to pant and blow," Dr. Green said.

I coached Michele in the panting and blowing.

Once Michele was going in the blowing, I asked; "Is the baby alright?"

"The baby is fine, it had the cord loosely wrapped around the neck," Dr. Green said.

Exactly one second after Dr. Green spoke we heard the baby start to cry.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked.

"You can't tell with the head," The nurse said.

"Alright here we go we are going to deliver one of the shoulders. Push Michele," Dr. Green said.

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five..." The nurse counted slowly

"Shoulder is free here comes the baby. It's a BOY!" Dr. Green said and held the baby up for us to see, then she quickly placed the baby on Michele's stomach and started to dry him off.

"A boy, I have a son," I said as I smiled big.

"Thanks Dad," Michele said.

"No thanks to you Mom you brought him into this world," I said.

"Hey dad, you want to cut the cord?" Dr. Green said.

"Yeah I do," I said. I then moved down closer to my son, once the cord was clamped. I was handed a pair of surgeons scissors and told, "Right in between the clamps," Dr. Green said. I cut the cord severing the bond between my girlfriend and my son. He was quickly taken by a nurse to be evaluated, diapered, footprints taken, bracelets put on him and wrapped in a blanket, like a baby burrito. While Dr. Green assisted with the delivery of the placenta and evaluated Michele.

Once Dr. Green was done evaluating Michele our son was brought over to her. "Here he is, Michele," the Nurse said.

"Oh, he is a handsome one, Welcome my son. Oh Gordon we need a name," Michele said.

"I don't suppose I could get you to change your mind on Gordon Andrew Bombay Junior?" I said.

"NO!" Michele said.

11:33 pm

I was admiring my 7 hour old son, while Michele slept. I told him all about Adam and then it dawned on me what I forgot 12 hours earlier. Adam today was parents day. We were so busy dealing with the baby we forgot to call. "Michele?" I asked.

"What Gordon?" Michele asked.

"We forgot to call Adam, today was parents day. I am going to call him," I said.

"Gordon, he's in bed and probably asleep, can we call him in the morning? I don't think that Mike, Annie, Jeremy or Georgia is going to like being woken up in the middle of the night," Michele said.

"Alright, fine I will call him tomorrow," I said.

"Come to bed, Gordon," Michele said.

I put our sleeping son down and climbed into bed with Michele. We had a double bed in the hospital and our son was allowed to room in with us.

April 27th, 1998 10:20 am Adam's POV

I cried myself to sleep last night, the first time in two months. Treban felt bad for me, he apologized profusely for anything that he had done wrong. I told him that it wasn't his fault but Gordon and Michele's. I didn't do any more of my homework, I had completed some on Saturday but I couldn't do anymore I was so mad at Gordon and Michele and I knew that they really didn't care for me.

"Adam do you have your paper on 'To Kill a Mockingbird' done," Ms. Gables said.

"Huh," I asked I had been looking out the window.

"Your paper on 'To Kill a Mockingbird' the book I asked you to read 3 weeks ago. The paper is due today," Ms. Gables said.

"No," I said quietly I finished the book on Saturday afternoon.

"Why not, Adam?" Ms. Gables asked.

"Because I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE DOING IT," I yelled at her. The rest of the boys heads turned and looked at me, I started to bawl.

Ms. Gables drew her lips into a thin line before she said, "Adam calm down, let's see how much of it that you do have done,"

I rolled my eyes, before I pulled my paper out of my backpack and showed it to her. I had the introduction, the characters and part of the plot, but that was it.

"Adam, I am disappointed in you," Ms. Gables said.

"I know," I said with my head down on the table. I knew I was getting an F, at least I would if I was still enrolled at Eden Hall. They didn't accept late work, at all. It needed to be done and done on time. I figured after my first month of my refusal to do any work, I was done with the excuses with Lakeside and here comes that big fat F.

Ms. Gables handed me my paper and said, "I want you to work on it, let's see what you can get done today." Then she walked away to help Ralph with his paper.

After several minutes of helping Ralph and Tony Ms. Gables said; "Remember Gentleman I need your papers as soon as possible so we can start to read Romeo and Juliet, tomorrow."

"I hope you are not going to let Adam be either Romeo or Juliet," Steve said.

The class laughed and I turned red.

"That is enough Steven," Ms. Gables said.

It took a few minutes of calming down before I could fully focus on writing more of the plot out. I had been writing for half an hour when I was tapped on the shoulder by Georgia. She was also 25 tall, thin and black like Jeremy. She had her hair pulled back into a french braid.

"You have a phone call," Georgia said.

"Who is it," I sneered.

"It's Gordon and you need to calm down," Georgia said.

"What if I don't want to talk to him. Since he can't spare 5 minutes yesterday," I said.

"Adam, I think you better take the phone call," Georgia said.

"I'm busy trying to get my homework done," I said.

Ms. Gables came up to us and asked; "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I said.

"Adam has a phone call from Gordon that I think that he should take," Georgia said.

"Go on Adam, take the phone call. You can work on To Kill a Mockingbird afterschool today," Ms. Gables said.

"FINE!" I yelled as I quickly stuffed my work in my backpack and headed upstairs to the office to take Gordon's phone call.

During the school day we had History from 8:00-8:55, Math 9:00-9:55, English 10:00-10:55, Physical Education 11:00-11:55, Lunch 12:00-12:55, Science 1:00-1:55, Spanish 2:00-2:55 and our elective or study hall from 3:00-3:55. When I got upstairs I was handed a phone by Annie and she said, "I will give you

When I got upstairs I was handed a phone by Annie and she said, "I will give you some space."

Once Annie left I said, "Hello?"

"Hey Adam, it's Gordon. Look man I am sorry that I wasn't able to come and see you or call you yesterday. I was kind of busy," Gordon said.

"Oh yeah? Busy doing what trying to find a new way to dump me?" I asked.

"No I and Michele were busy with the birth of your new baby brother," Gordon said.

"What?" I asked as I sat down at the desk.

"Yep Michele and I had boy yesterday at 4:17 pm; 8 pounds 6 ounces, 21 inches long. Michele says he looks like me but I don't see it," Gordon said as he laughed.

"Wow, congratulations Gordon. Now I feel like a heel," I said.

"Why?" Gordon asked.

"Because you didn't call or visit and I figured you abandoned me," I said.

"No Adam, I would never give up on you. Neither would Michele," Gordon said.

I smiled before I said, "Thanks so does my baby brother have a name?"

"Yes he does Hans Robert Adam Charles Bombay," Gordon said.

"That's a tongue twister," I said.

"Tell me about it. Michele insisted on Adam and Charles for obvious reasons," Gordon said.

"Wow Charlie and I have someone named after us. Does he know yet," I asked.

"Nope not yet, I called Casey just before I called you. She's going to tell Charlie and Ducks afterschool. Since they will probably all be at Mickey's later studying," Gordon said.

"Who's the Robert for?" I asked.

"My father, I think we might call him Bob or Bobby. Speaking of which; Michele and I want you, Charlie and Bella to be the Godparents," Gordon said.

"M..me? A.. a Godparent, I don't know Coach. I and God aren't exactly on the same page," I said.

"Does that matter? No, you know that Michele and I aren't very religious. Your role is to take legal guardianship should something happen to both Michele and I," Gordon said.

"Wow, that's great," I said.

"What's wrong you don't sound very happy?" Gordon asked.

"I just don't know if I am the right person to take on that kind of responsibility," I said.

"Well don't freak out my mom and Michele's parents are being named the legal guardians, until you kids are 18. After that you kids get to decide who gets to keep and raise little Hans. Should something happen to Michele or I and our parents," Gordon said.

"Wait Ollie told me that he had to be 25 before he could sign the paperwork to be Bella's guardian for her to donate the blood to me. Why 18 for us?" I asked.

"Ollie wasn't the legal guardian. You have to be 25 to be named a guardian to someone under the age of 18 by the courts. Unless of course the last living will and testament says different that was drafted by the attorney and signed by your parents. Your parents didn't name a legal guardian, which is why we won custody of you," Gordon said.

"So if Bella wanted to come here, you would?" I asked.

"Have to sue Phillip and Seraphina to get custody of her. But since she has a relationship with Phillip that will probably not happen," Gordon said.

"That figures. They always liked her best the brat," I said.

"Hey be on the lookout for pictures of Hans I am sending them thru the mail today, so you should receive it, either Thursday or Friday, this week," Gordon said.

"Ok," I said.

"I have to get back to Michele and the baby, but I wanted to call and explain what happened. I will try and bring Michele and the baby up soon," Gordon said.

"Thanks Coach tell Michele I said Congratulations," I said.

"Sure and I will talk to you soon, okay?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Alright I will let you get back to class. Bye," Gordon said.

"Bye," I said and then I hung up the phone. I had the biggest smile on my face as I walked out of the office.

"Good News?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, Gordon and Michele had there baby yesterday, a little boy. Should be getting pictures in a couple of days," I said.

"That's awesome. I think that the boys are getting ready to head outside for physical education," Annie said.

I quickly headed downstairs to catch up with the boys, still not being able to wipe the smile off my face. Even Dr. Freeman commented on my smiling while I was having my session with him.

**A/N: Credit to bobcatwriter as always. Thoughts?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

I was on the phone to Bella, Gunnar and Charlie.

Like me, Bella and Charlie couldn't believe that that Gordon and Michele wanted us to be godparents to Baby Hans.

"And, Adam did you listen to the game? Did Josh call it well? How do you think we did? I was so nervous-" Bella said.

"How was my goal in the third period?" Charlie asked, cutting her off.

"Vhat about mine in the second?"

"No, no, no, no. Goal of the game was definitely mine with a minute to go…" Bella.

"You all played well!"

"How's your baby brother?" Charlie asked.

"He's good, Mike let me go and visit them the other day. He's cute, you'll like him."

"I can't wait to come up in July, is everything good up there, how much longer on the crutches?"

"A few more weeks and it'll be off, yeah."

"Alright, bye Ads," Bella said in her usual cheery demeanour.

"Wait, can I talk to Gunnar for a sec?"

"Sure. Bye Banksie."

I heard them exit the room.

"Vhat's up?"

"You've been spending to much time with Charlie," I said chuckling.

"I take offence to that."

"I miss you."

"I miss vou, too."

"Are you coming up to Sacramento in July?"

"Off course."

"Love you."

"I love you too.

BELLA P.O.V:

"Hey Charlie," the head cheerleader Zara said, walking up to our table.

"Hey," he answered, looking at me. I nodded.

"We're having a little get together tonight, you in?"

"Uh, yeah. Why not?"

"Good, my place eight o'clock."

"Cool."

She skipped off over to her friends on the other side of the library.

"We got invited to a senior's party," he said smugly to me.

"And do you know why that is?"

"My charm and good looks?"

"The words on the backs of our letterman jackets."

We were both wearing them, neither of us cared that the hockey season was over. Most people had had theirs done to say their last names, though Charlie had gone with 'The Captain' and mine simply said 'Ace'.

"You're the captain of the 13th consecutive state championship team that this school has had. We're big news, just like Riley was."

"Are you comparing me to Rick Riley, _Isabella_?"

"As long as you don't let it get to your head, _Charles_."

"Don't call me Charles."

"Don't call me Isabella."

He kissed me, hard. "Sorry Angel."

I giggled giving into his waiting arms

…

Charlie Conway was many things, though the only one that could comet to my head… was stupid. We had gone to the party and it was not what Zara had described. Yep definitely not a small get together. Some of the other Ducks were there, Connie, Guy, The Bash Brothers and Gunnar, or as one cheerleader referred to him 'the hot Icelandic dude'. If only she knew.

Anyway, Charlie was off the charts drunk and I appeared to be the only completely sober one there so 'whoop'. By the time we left to walk back to school, nothing was going right. Portman and Fulton had their arms around Gunnar, who appeared to be more of a lightweight than my brother. Connie and I were on Charlie duty. With Guy walking behind.

When we walked into Gunnar and Charlie's dorm, Charlie's swayed on the spot and then projectile vomited up everything that he had eaten that day. Chunks of bile covered partially chewed chicken spurted up his throat, onto the semi-clean carpet. I looked at Gunnar who was passed out on Adam's old bed, then at Connie.

"Believe it or not, this is not how I planned on spending my Saturday night."

"Sorry, hon, but I gotta go check on Guy. Good luck."

I hugged her good bye, then grimaced at the sound of to boys puking behind me.

But honestly who could possibly think of a better bonding activity than rubbing your teammates backs while they're vomiting into the toilet and shower respectively.

CHARLIE P.O.V:

I woke up lying on the tiles of the bathroom that adjoined to my dorm. Bella was stroking my hair, I had a killer headache and my stomach felt terrible.

I had the sudden urge to vomit and I think Bella saw it coming as she moved so I had full access to the shower.

I wiped my mouth and looked over at Gunnar.

"What happened to us?"

"You got really drunk last night at that party, but I think you must have had a bug or something because usually when Ollie got drunk from parties, he only threw up twice and was fine."

"Oh."

I heard the sound of vomiting on the other side of the room as well. Gunnar was projectile vomiting all over the other side of the bathroom and he was abnormally white.

GUNNAR P.O.V:

My stomach lurched again, I could feel my dinner from the previous night coming up my throat with the bile's acidic taste. I turned to tell Bella but instead my vomit came up all over her and Charlie.

"Gunnar, I need you to stay there okay? I'm going to get Charlie changed and then I'll come back for you."

**A FEW WEEKS LATER**

t all started with a pair of pants. I had been trying for the last month after I had gotten off of house arrest to lose weight on my own. But I had no luck. I was trying the lose 10 pounds in 3 days and look fabulous diet I saw on the cover of a Woman's World Magazine that I threw on the belt of the checkout while Gordon wasn't looking while we were shopping for Emergency Easter ingredients that Mrs. MacKay and Michele forgot while they were at the grocery store.

_{Flashback} April 11th, 1998_

_"Sir, do you want this with you or in the bag?" said the cashier that held the magazine up. After she checked it out._

_"What's that for Banks?" Gordon asked._

_"I don't know, Michele wanted me to purchase that for something," I said shrugging my shoulders._

_"Hmm, it's not on the list," Gordon said._

_"Don't ask me, she's your girlfriend, not mine," I said with my hands held up._

_When we got home I made sure that I carried the bag with the magazine in it. Once I was inside and none of the adults were looking, I quickly stuffed the magazine up my shirt and went into my room. To hide it in my suitcase, I would read it once I was alone. Michele's parents decided to stay at a hotel, because there was no room at Michele and Gordon's house. When I finally had some time alone, I locked my door and read the article. It seemed simple to simple. Drink water and eat nothing. For three days, then you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. It was prefect. Between that and me going into the gym and working out hard. I know I would be back in hockey shape in no time. I would eat nothing for three days and then eat everything for three days and repeat. I was going to try it when I got back to Lakeside.  
{End of Flashback}  
_

**May 25th, 1998  
**  
Memorial Day was the day I started the diet, the day I could not get my pants buttoned. I got them on my legs and up to my waist and zipped but not buttoned. I tried again and again and still no luck.

I grunted, "Oh come on. Come on please!" I said.

Treban walked into the room from the bathroom, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't get my pants buttoned. Did Molly ever struggle with this?" I asked.

"Oh' he laughed, 'All of the time, especially after her period. She would eat like a horse for a day or two and then keep eating while on the period. After it was over it was a week before she was able to button her pants up without doing the as she called it, sucking in her gut. Why?" Treban asked.

"I think I have gained too much weight. I can't get my pants buttoned." I said.

Treban looked at me over once and said, "Yeah you are starting to look like Mrs. Jumbo, Adam!" then he laughed.

"Oh shut up," I said.

"Look Adam if your serious there is a scale in the medical office, go find out." Treban said.

"Really I thought it was locked all of the time. Since the door is always closed," I said.

"Nope, the only thing that is really locked in that room is the places that they keep the medicines in, that one cabinet and a drawer in the refrigerator. Everything else is fair game for the rest of us. You see Mike and Jeremy go in and out of that room after they have gotten a papercut?" Treban said.

"Yeah," I said.

"So go and find out," Treban said.

"I'm scared would you come with me?" I asked.

Treban rolled his eyes before he said, "fine."

I quickly threw on a shirt and we walked down to the medical office.

Treban opened the door, turned on the light, shut the door behind us, lead me to the scale and said, "There she is. The scale of life and death.

It was an old-fashioned scale, like the one I saw in the doctor's offices. But I didn't know how it works. I was always facing backwards on it when I was weighed. I was told by my mother that it was to get my height after they got my weight. "How does this thing work?" I asked.

"You don't know how to work it?" Treban asked.

"No, I was always facing backwards on it. My mother had the other kind the one that spun the dial around, but she would never let us use it," I said.

"Well you are going to have to hop on the scale," Treban said.

I looked down at my shoes, I knew that it was going to have added extra weight that I didn't need, same with my watch that I always had on my wrist. "Hang on, let me dump this extra weight," I said.

Once the extra weight was off me, I hopped onto the scale.

"Okay see its starting at zero and the bar is not in the middle see,' Treban asked, I nodded. The bar was touching the top of the window. 'What you are going to do is take the larger weight and move it to where you think you might be. What was your weight the last time you were weighed?" Treban asked.

"Like 145 last year," I said.

"Okay it goes by every 50 pounds, so we move the larger weight to 100 and then we move the smaller weight slowly until the bar bounces in the middle," Treban said.

Treban got it to 145, the bar didn't move. "Okay another 50 pounds," Treban said as he moved the larger weight to 150 plus the 45 pounds on the smaller weight making a grand total of 190. The bar still didn't move.

"Oh God," I groaned. I knew I put on too much weight I just knew it.

"Okay 200," Treban said as he moved the larger weight to 200 plus the 45 pounds on the smaller weight making a grand total of 245.

The balance bar slammed down to the bottom of the window. "Oh my God, I gained that much weight?" I said. I knew I was a porker, but that weight astonished me.

"Relax it has to balance in the middle," Treban said as he moved the smaller weight back to 240, it didn't move. 235, it didn't move, 230 it didn't move, 225 the bar moved back up to the top. "One last time," Treban said as he moved the smaller weight up to 226 the bar didn't move, 227 the bar didn't move, 228 the bar started to move. Finally at 229 the bar moved to the centre and balanced. "229 pounds," Treban said.

"Do you think is accurate?" I asked.

"Yeah Annie weighs herself every week," Treban said.

My jaw dropped, "God, I put on nearly 85 pounds, in 21 months."

"Why 21 months?" Treban asked.

"That was when I had my school physical for last year to get into Eden Hall. They took my school physical and make it the same as my sports physical. I was in the hospital when sports physicals were due for winter sports last fall, so I didn't know how much I had grown." I said. I looked over at the wall at a poster that said:

WHAT'S YOU BODY MASS INDEX? And it gave a whole bunch of information. "I wonder if I am normal?" I asked.

"Huh?" Treban asked. I pointed to the poster. "Well let's find out, turn around," Treban asked.  
Treban pulled out the little measuring stick before he said, "Back up and stand nice and tall." I did what he requested. "74 inches," Treban said.

"Okay I gotta get the formula and figure this out," I said. I started to write stuff down as the breakfast bell started to ring.

"You coming?" Treban asked.

"You go on and dish me some," I said.

After Treban left I stood there and figured my BMI and I double checked my math and I got the same thing 29.3. I was overweight. Another 5 pounds and I would be like my father, Obese. I never felt more ashamed of myself in my entire life. I wanted to cry, "No Adam No you are not a baby," I said to myself.

As soon as I checked to make sure my eyes were dry. I didn't need to give Steven more bullying ammo. I went to the dining room, breakfast was almost over. "About time you joined us, you Ok?" Mike said.

"Yeah, fine. I am just not very hungry," I said as I stared at my glass of 2 percent milk. I knew what helped to make me fat.

Once Mike was gone Treban whispered in my ear, "So?"

I whispered back, " My BMI is 29.3. I need to lose 36 pounds to get me back to a normal BMI and probably an additional 35-40 pounds to get me back into hockey shape, but I am not sure. It said something about how athletes need a certain percentage of body fat, but I don't know how to measure or if it's accurate. "

"71 pounds? Is that possible? " Treban asked.

"I don't know. Look just keep this between you, me and wall. I don't want anybody to know that I am dieting, it's embarrassing." I whispered

"You got it," Treban said.

I didn't eat anything at lunch either. I was getting pretty hungry at lunch "No Adam, mind over willpower. You are stronger than this. You need to lose weight you big fat cow," I told myself, and then I took a drink of water.

That Afternoon Treban and I sat down at the computer in the classroom and was surfing the web trying to figure out about how much fat I was actually carrying and the correct amount of Body fat I need to have to be athletic. The classroom was empty, Ms. Gables was gone for the weekend, almost everyone else was outside. "Here this one it seems easy enough and all you would need is a tape measure." Treban said.

"It does seem easy enough, print it," I said after I read it.

Treban printed the page and I quickly got it off the printer. Then a thought entered my head how would I get a tape measure? "Treban how are we going to get a tape measure, I don't have one," I said.

"Annie, she makes some of her clothes, she has one," Treban said.

We raced upstairs and found Annie in the dining room helping Luke with his homework.

"Annie could we borrow your tape measure?" I asked.

"Why?" Annie asked.

"Uh, uh," I was trying to come up with an answer. I couldn't possibly tell her the truth about me dieting. Because Luke would hear and he would spread it to the rest of the guys.

"I am waiting, Adam," Annie said.

Luckily Treban saved my bacon when he said, "He wants to measure his Mike Modano poster and get it into a frame, so it will stay nice."

Annie thought about it for thirty endless seconds before she finally said, "Sure I will let you borrow it, just make sure you return it." Annie left to go and get the tape measure and give it to us.

"Thanks Annie," we both said and took off.

Annie's POV

Something is up with those two, I noticed Adam didn't eat Breakfast or Lunch today. They had been whispering secrets back and forth since this morning. I saw them come out of the medical office and now my tape measure. I am not liking whatever it is.

Adam's POV

Once we got to our room we both went "Whew."

"That was too close. Thanks for saving my bacon back there," I said.

"Yeah no problem let get this get this over with. What does it say?" Treban asked.

We figured out my measurements and found out I was at 26 percent body fat, I have 60 pounds fat and 169 pounds of lean muscle mass. To be athletic I need to be down to 6-13 percent body fat. I decided that I wanted to be around 12 percent body fat, which meant that I would need about 18 pounds of fat 130 pounds of lean muscle mass and about a 33 inch waist. I was currently at a 43 inch waist, I had a long way to go.

May 26th and 27th passed along the same way as normal. I was starting to get really, really hungry but I had to remind myself mind over matter. I am a fat pig. By the end of day 3, I was sure I lost 10 pounds. But I noticed that I was starting to feel tired, sluggish and not willing to concentrate. Especially during the school day. Annie came by mine and Treban's table on her way to put her dishes away after supper, when she asked; "Your not eating again, Adam?"

"I am just not very hungry," I said. Then my stomach grumbled.

"I think your stomach would like to say something different," Annie said.

"LIKE MY STOMACH WOULD KNOW BETTER!" I yelled at her.

"Alright calm down Adam jeez. I want to see you eat a bite of your sandwich," Annie said.

I grimaced and then took a small bite out of my sandwich, chewed it a couple of times stuck it behind my teeth on the other side of my cheek. Made a swallow and said; "Happy?"

"Very good, eat some more," Annie said and then she was on her way. Once her back was turned I looked around the room to see if anyone was watching me, no one was. I quickly picked up my napkin and spat out the bite into it. I then gave Treban some of my sandwich to make Annie happy. Which Treban quickly ate.

Annie's POV  
When I got back to my table I asked my husband and coworkers; "Did you guys notice anything being off with Adam?"

"No not really," Jeremy said.

"What's wrong, Honey?" Mike asked.

"I don't know; I have a funny feeling, Adam hasn't eaten anything in three days. What's worse is him and Treban have been acting weird being real close together," I said.

L"It's probably nothing, you know how boys can be from time to time," Georgia said.

**A/N: Well? Credit to bobcatwriter. I sort of went off on a tangent there at the start. What will happen to Adam and what will happen when they find out?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Ducks. I only own Bella, Emily, Alex and Jonson. And bobcatwriter owns Annie, Mike, Treban, Ms Gables, and some of the other characters at Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

My alarm clock went off, it was time for me to do an hour of Cardio and then get myself weighed, showered and dressed before anybody notice what was going on. I was SO DAMN HUNGRY, I could not wait to eat at 6:30. As I was working out I noticed that I was starting to feel faint, I felt the same way yesterday and the day before, I told myself "mind over matter you fat pig." After my workout I went upstairs to weigh myself in the Medical Office. I was more than positive I lost the ten pounds. I got up on the scale and put the large weight at the 200 and slowly moved the small counterweight, it crept up.. 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222. With each pound I was losing hope. I kept moving the weight: 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228. On number 229 the bar balanced out. I didn't lose a single pound. I did a double take, "No it can't be," I said. I got off the scale I was sure the scale was WRONG! I started over and re-weighed myself. Still the same, 229. I quickly got off the scale and ran down to get a shower. When I got back to mine and Treban's room. Treban was up and getting ready to take a shower it was now 6:10 am.

"Well," Treban asked when I walked into the room. I shook my head no.

"Nothing, not even a pound?" Treban asked.

"No," I said.

"Well maybe it takes a couple of rounds to get it kick started," Treban said.

"I hope so, I am not sure if I could do this much longer without completely losing my mind. I am so damn hungry," I said.

"Relax, you will be about to eat in 20 minutes, and you can eat all you want for the next three days," Treban said.

"Thank God," I said.

When the breakfast bell finally rang, I ran to breakfast, to make sure I was the first in line. Which I was. I loaded up I got 5 pancakes, a large side of hash browns, several sausage links, several pieces of bacon, a large bowl of Lucky Charms, at least 2 scoops of scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of toast and three large glasses of milk. I made sure I had plenty of butter and maple syrup on my pancakes. I WAS HUNGRY! I sat down at the table and began to dig in. Not even waiting for the meal time prayer. That we are supposed to take part in, before we were allowed to eat. Annie got her meal and walk by me and Treban, who just joined me, on her way to the staff table.

"A little hungry this morning Adam?" Annie asked.

I nodded my head yes as I was chewing and swallowing my food. As soon as I was finished with my meal, which took about 10 minutes. I went back for more; although not as much as I got in the first round. "Are you hungry this morning Adam?" Mrs. Anderson the cook asked.

"Yeah, Could I have more?" I asked.

"Of course, what all do you want?" Mrs. Anderson said.

After I was done with my second breakfast, I never felt so full in all my life. Treban looked at me and asked, "You okay?"

"No, I am sick, I think I need to go and throw up," I said. Then my breakfast started to come up on me and I made a beeline for the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet when my breakfast came up, all of it.

Mike followed me to the bathroom, "Adam are you okay?"

I hurled and then I said, "yeah," then I hurled some more.

Mike located the stall I was in, felt my head and said, "I think you're getting a little warm; I hope you're not getting the flu that's the last thing we need in this house."

"I'll be fine Mike," I said.

"No you are staying in the medical room, until you really start to feel better. No classes, no counselling, no group therapy. I am going to get some bed clothing for you to stay in. Do you want anything?" Mike asked.

"Yeah my pad of papers, could I write my letters to the Ducks and Gunnar?" I asked. "Of course," Mike said.

Mike got the stuff I requested and let me change in the bathroom and we walked down to the medical room. "Little baby Adam, waah waah waah," Steven taunted at me. I tried to ignore what was going on.

Luckily Dr. Binford walked in before I was taunted and said, "MY OFFICE STEVEN, NOW!" A smile was on my face as he was taken to Dr. Binford's office. Which happened to be directly across the hall from the Medical room.

After I was all set in the medical room; Mike left me alone. I laid down on one of the cots and fell asleep, I must have needed the sleep.

I was woken up by Annie at noon with a bowl of chicken soup. "I brought some soup and 7UP are you hungry?"

"Kind of," I took the bowl of soup from Annie's hands, it was chicken noodle soup, from Campbells, my favourite. I ate the soup.

Annie felt my forehead "Well you don't feel hot. Have you thrown up lately?" She asked.

"Not since breakfast, I have been sleeping since I got in here," I said.

"Well you probably need the rest. If you don't throw up again before four, we will release you to your normal daily activities," Annie said.

"Okay," I said. After the soup I started to lay back down again,

"I'm getting tired again," I said.

"Okay, Goodnight," Annie said and she left the room.

After lunch Treban came in to visit me for a few minutes before class started for the afternoon. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, could you do me a favour and sneak down that magazine before you go to class?" I asked.

"I figured you might want it, so I already did," Treban said as he handed the magazine over.

"Thanks man, it's really boring in here," I said.

After Treban left, I decided that I needed to weigh myself, I don't know what made me do it, it just happened. The scale read 230. I was going the wrong direction, I then walked into the bathroom and stuck a finger down my throat. I started to cough and hack really bad, but nothing came up. I knew Mrs. Johnson would do it sometimes when she ate too much when Gary and I were kids, I didn't understand why at the time. I stuck a second finger down my throat and pressed down hard. It was then that my soap and up came up my throat and landed in the toilet. It was then that I realized what happened after Mrs. Johnson would do it. It was high, it was better sprinkles, ice cream, birthday cake, springtime, sex and much better than cutting. Not that I would never say no to any of those, but it was something that I was going to want to do again. After I was done throwing up; I hid the magazine real quick. I knew one of the adults would be in soon. I laid down on the magazine.

"Did you just throw up Adam?" Annie called as she walked in.

"Yeah," I said in a weak voice.

She felt my head. "Well alright stay here and get some rest," Annie said.

"Good night," I said.

"Night," Annie said. After Annie was gone. I quickly got up and locked the door. I went and weighed myself. The scale read 228. I did it, I lost a pound, well two pounds. Maybe that is what I needed to do from now on the days that I could eat anything. Eat whatever I want and then go and throw it up!

_A few weeks later_

CHARLIE P.O.V:

We couldn't wait.

For what?

For everything.

For the school year to be over.

To go and see Adam.

For the next hockey season to start.

To go and see Adam.

To start hockey training.

Did I mention see Adam.

I hadn't seen him since he went to Lakeside, spoken on the phone yes. And we didn't exactly leave things in the best way.

I'm pretty sure Gunnar feels the same way, because for the last week he's been a nervous wreck. Which quite frankly I get. Long distance relationships can't exactly be easy, but then you have to counter in the fact that his entire family lives overseas and such.

Bella has been in full panic mode, going crazy she started packing and we don't even leave for like three weeks. Yet I think in a way I'm scared to, this is my best friend we're talking about and last time he wasn't within arm's reach, I pushed him away.

**A/N: What did you think? Thank you always to the amazing bobcatwriter this story wouldn't be half what it is without your input. Thoughts? What will happen when they go and visit? What was Adam thinking? What's your reasoning for Charlie, Gunnar and Bella's behaviour? Is Treban doing the right thing by backing Adam up? Let me know.**


	12. Chapter 12

p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"June 29th, 1998 Charlies POV /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"I was so excited, we were finally going to go and see Adam. I haven't seen him in nearly 6 months. His letters lately have been cheerful and it seemed he was getting better. School was done for the year on May 22nd. Gunnar had begged his parents to let him stay in America for the summer. They finally agreed at the beginning of May that he could stay as long as he was staying with a responsible adult. Who better than my mother and I? We completely rearranged my room. My desk and some other stuff got moved down to the basement, to make room for another twin bed in my room. My step father moved out of the house in mid April. Things were not going well for them at all. He wanted mom to get pregnant and have another baby. Mom felt she was far too old at 36 to be chasing another child. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Bellas good, we are great. As I was thinking about the kiss between me and Adam; I realized that although I initiated it. I wasn't into kissing guys. I liked Bella's kisses better way better. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We popped the cherry during spring break, Bella and I. Gunnar went with Goldberg and his family to Philadelphia during that week after the state championships, which we won. It wasn't easy. It was a real battle with Virginia high school. In the first round, we had trounced Blake 9-1. I and Gunner had a hat trick each. We beat Rochester 4-3 in the second round. We had fallen behind Virginia High School in the 2nd period. Every time we would put in a goal, they would put in a goal to make us behind again. We had to pull Scooter for Guy with 2 minutes left and Guy scored the tying goal. We got them in Overtime and won 8-7, winning Eden Hall's 13th consecutive State Trophy. We told Adam that we won state. But we didn't tell him that we had a surprise for him in store. The Monday after the state championship, Bella and I were sitting in my house watching TV. Both my mom and Step Dad were at work./span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"{/spanspan class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Flashback March 16th, 1998}/span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie do you love me?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Of course I do," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Do you find me attractive and alluring?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Of course why?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I was just wondering. I was thinking of what Riley did to me and I don't know if I could be sexual again," Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"That got my man part to sit up and beg. "What are you talking about Bella?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie, I love you, but I don't know if I could be intimate with a man, any man," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Bella, I love you; too so much. I didn't want to be pushy," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie will you have sex with me?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Are you sure? Like really sure? Because I…. I….. I… don't know what I am doing in that field," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I don't know much either if it wasn't for Riley. I would still be a virgin," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Your still a virgin to me. You wouldn't mind if you had sex with a virgin would you?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No because I don't know what I am doing either. It all happened so fast with Riley," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Then yes I will have sex with you, hang on a minute," I said and I went upstairs to my room and tried to shove as much of my mess under the bed and in the drawers as I could. When I went back downstairs I saw Bella wringing her hands on the couch, she was nervous. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You know we don't have to do this if your scared or nervous," I said as I touched her face. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie I need to know if I can be intimate with a man. Please take me to bed," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"We started kissing and making out on the couch, pretty soon one of my hands was in her shirt feeling one of her boobs. They were tiny, I figured she was an A cup. I fumbled for her bra strap. I saw my step father do it numerous times with my mom before they had sex. She had her hand in my pants and firmly grasping my male member. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Let's take this upstairs. Do you have a condom?" Bella said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, I am sure my step dad does. You go on to my room, I will be right there," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I went into my parents room and found a box of condoms, in my step fathers nightstand drawer I grabbed a couple and quickly read the instructions on the box. My male number was out firmly and ready to go. I put the condom on and it rolled off. I did the second one and the same thing happened. Finally with the third condom it was on. I took several more condoms just in case and joined Bella in the bedroom. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Hi," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Hi," Bella said and she began to wring her hands again. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You know we really don't have to do this. If your really scared. We…. we don't have to rush," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I'm positive, Charlie. Take me to bed!" Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Bella put her hands under my shirt and felt my abs, "Is this okay," she asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah,' I said. I then made more contact with her boobs. 'Is this okay?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes,' Bella said she then loosened my belt and the shorts I was wearing, before she reached in for more playtime with my male member, 'Is this okay?" She asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah. Is it okay if I take off your shirt?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes" Bella said. I took off her shirt, my shorts soon followed, then her bra, my shirt, her shoes and socks, my undershirt, her pants, my socks, her panties, followed by my boxers. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""God you are sexy," Bella said as she took one look at me in the buff. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I swallowed hard before I said, "I think your sexier." I didn't know what Bella or any of the girls on the team looked like completely nude. They usually had their underclothing on when they got to the locker room for practice or games. If they needed to shower and change after practice or games they would take their stuff down to the women's locker room to shower and change. They were pretty fast too, because they would be back packing their belongings by the time the second round of us guys got out of the shower and dressed. We had to have towels draped around our male parts and had to have our underwear on before we could remove said towel. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"We did more kissing and foreplay before Bella landed on my bed and I landed on top of her. "Ow," she said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Did I hurt you?" I asked, ready to call it off. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, its fine," Bella said.. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Are you really sure you want this?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes Charlie. Make love to me," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""God you are so beautiful," I said, then I kissed her and she started to spread her legs apart./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I got up on my knees and saw how her vagana opened. "I'm guessing that's the spot," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah Riley stuck his fingers in that spot, just before he did what he did," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I started to insert my male member inside of Bella when I heard a sharp gasp, "ow."/span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I stopped immediately, "Did I hurt you?" I asked scared. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, the pain is gone already," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I continued on in and laid completely still on top and in her, kissing her until she bucked underneath me. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""CHARLIE FASTER FASTER FASTER," Bella chanted. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I started to go faster and harder and she met each one of my thrusts with a thrust of her own. "Oh my God, CHARLIE! I LOVE YOU!" Bella screamed. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"She went over in Orgasm and I quickly followed it was incredible. I never knew what I was missing in my entire 15 almost 16 years of my life. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"My male member deflated in her. "Did I hurt you?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You never could," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Do you uh… feel better about yourself?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes I do. Thank you Charlie. Can we do it again?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I uh think you better give me a few minutes or an hour or two," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Bella just giggled. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;".../span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Two days later, Guy came over because he wanted to go and play a little schoolyard puck. When I let him in the door he said, "You had sex with Bella?" /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Shush, my mother is in the house. If she found out I had sex in my room she would go nuts and I am pretty sure that Bella's Dad would kill me, if Adam didn't beat him to it. How did you know?" I whispered. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""There's three ways to get information to people: Telephone, telegraph and tell Connie," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""God, Connie knows? Great!" I said rolling my eyes. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yep, the three of them are going down to planned parenthood to get Bella on birth control this morning," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""The three of them?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah; Bella, Connie and Mrs. Moreau" Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Guy please don't tell Adam about this, he will go through the roof. I don't want to fuck up his recovery," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Your secret is safe with me," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""What about Connie?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I am pretty sure she will keep this from Adam," Guy said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I only hope so, let's go play," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Later on the way home/span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You know your step father is probably going to find out about your little rendezvous with Bella the next time your parents have sex," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""OH SHIT, How am I going to keep them from finding out?" Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Did you use a condom?" Guy asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""How many?" Guy asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Two, three, four, five, six," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You had sex with Bella 6 times?" Guy asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, I wasted the first two condom's, had sex with the third, the fourth one was broke, wasted the fifth one and got lucky with the sixth. Bella and I only had sex twice," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You do realize condoms come like 12 to a box," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Wait if Condoms, 12 to a box and I used 6, I am in deep shit," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Did you count how many were there?" Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Let's go we have to replace those condoms," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"We walked into a Walgreens Drug Store and walked down the contraception isle and saw about 50 or so different boxes of condoms. Everything from extra length, ultra thin, lubricated and non lubricated. "God Guy how do we choose?" I asked./span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Dec 30, 2019/span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Well we'll let Ben choose for us," Guy said as he pulled out a 100 dollar bill./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Where did you get that?" I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""My neighbor lady that lives next door to the apartment, I helped rake her leaves, and scooped her snow every time it snowed during the winter, put the ice melt down for her and brought her mail to her daily. Told me to spend it on something frivolous," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You should spend it on Connie, take her to dinner," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""You need help it's a loan. Then I will take Connie to dinner, or save it for my car," Guy said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"We bought 9 boxes of condoms at $10.45 a piece. Hoping just hoping that one of those boxes was the right ones. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""That will be $102.10, boys," said the cashier. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Bye bye Ben," Guy said. I pulled out my last 5 bucks, I was in some serious trouble. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"We got back to my house and I checked to see if the coast was clear. It was, Guy and I hurried to my mom's and stepfathers room. Luckily one of the boxes that we bought was the exact box that he used. I replaced the six condoms I took from him. I took the rest to my room and suck them in my desk. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Three Days Later /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"My stepfather was waiting for me to come home from taking Bella to the movies, we saw Titanic. I never saw it and Bella wanted to see it again. "Hey Charlie," My step father said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Hey Fred, what's up?" I asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Well apparently you, sit down we need to talk," Fred said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Ok," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Your mother and I know what happened the other day," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I gave him a confused look, "What are you talking about," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""About you having sex with Bella," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Oh God," I said as I rolled my eyes. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""So it is true?" Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes, how did you find out?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Your mother overheard your conversation with Guy. She asked me to count my condoms. Which I did, they were all there. Then I noticed one thing some of individual packages had different expiration then what was printed on the box," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I gulped, "Are you mad? Is mom mad?" /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, we understand that this is just a part of life. But I want you two to be mature and responsible always about this. Because Charlie, your making an adult decision every time you have sex. We just don't want you to get Bella accidentally pregnant. Your mother was just 20 when she had you," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I know," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Because if something happens and Bella does get accidentally pregnant, before you two are even ready. You are facing a pretty long and tough road ahead," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""How old were you your first time?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Well I wasn't much older than you. But I was still way too young. I didn't understand anything about women and sex. I couldn't exactly go to my father about this, because it wasn't talked about in those days," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I promise we are going to practice safe sex. Bella went on the pill, the doctor at Planned Parenthood, told her that she ovulates, whatever that means 2 weeks before her period, she has to watch when she has sex. I will keep a stash of condoms in my drawers," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Good and Charlie if you need some don't be afraid to ask. I want you to be mature and responsible about this, because you are playing with fire," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I understand," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Good get out of here," Fred said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Bella's POV /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"After I lost my virginity with Charlie, I felt better than I had when Riley rapped me, but I still wasn't comfortable in my own skin. I knew I could go to Connie about this. She always knew what to do. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Oh my God, you had sex with CHARLIE?" Connie gasped. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah, I needed to be sure I could be intimate," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""God Riley did a number on you, didn't he?" Connie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I nodded my head. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Are you going to become sexually active?" Connie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I don't know," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Connie, Bella what's going on," Mrs. Moreau asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Nothing," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I overheard your conversation. Bella why are you becoming sexually active at 15?" Mrs. Moreau asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""I am not sure if I am going to become sexually active. I just needed to know if I could become intimate with a man. After Riley raped me last year," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Wait hold on. Rick Riley raped you? Does Adam know about this?" Mrs. Moreau asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yes too both." I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Bella I think you need some information. I will give Planned Parenthood a call," Mrs. Moreau said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""No, because they will tell my parents and my dad will go thru the roof. Dad disowned Adam after he switched back from Varsity to JV last year. I don't want to know what Dad will do, if he finds out about the premarital sex," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Bella you need information. It won't hurt to talk to them. Besides I know your father played for the North Stars. He probably had hundreds of partners before your mother. He was a good looking guy, back in his day," Mrs. Moreau said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""My father, good looking. I doubt it," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Alright I will prove it to you," Mrs. Moreau said. She went downstairs and grabbed a trading card book. From one of Connie's older brothers, labeled Hockey. She flipped a couple of pages before she found the one she was looking for, "There he is, your dad's 1974 rookie card," Mrs. Moreau said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"My dad was 26 in that card. "WOW, He is good looking," Connie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Connie, He looks like Adam," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah, he does but without the blonde hair, you must have gotten it from your mom. If Adam is going to look like that in 10 years wow," Connie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Shut up that's my brother, eww," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;""Are you going to get the information? Because I think that you should," Mrs. Moreau said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"I just nodded my head. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"{End of Flashbacks} /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Charlies POV /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We were leaving early in the morning on the 29th. Bella, Gunnar and I wanted to fly. Mom put a stop to that one. Because she couldn't afford 4 tickets to go to California and back and she was afraid of flying. We were driving across the country, it took a little convincing out of mom to get me to agree to drive. After she told me that it would be good, because I would get more practice with my driving skills. I agreed, I'm turning 16 in August, Bella would turn 16 in September and Gunnar would be 16 in January. Mom borrowed a car from her boss, she knew her 1985 station wagon would not make it across the country. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We made it to Casper, Wyoming that evening. Where we would be staying at a Motel 6. "I need two rooms, that connect together," Mom told the desk clerk. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""You happened to be in luck you are getting my last 2 rooms," the clerk said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"As mom was checking us into the motel, Bella asked, "Are there any good trails around here?." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah a couple of blocks east of here there's park and a pretty good trail called Platte River Parkway Trail," the clerk said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Great! What time is the sun up tomorrow?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Uh let me check,' The clerk looked at the newspaper, he was reading when we walked in, 'Sunrise is 5:29 am." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Great thanks," Bella smiled. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"When we got into our rooms mom said, "Bella I don't want you to go running by yourself." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I am sure, Charlie will go with me," Bella said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"I nearly choked on my Mt. Dew that I was drinking, before I said "Me? Get up at dawn. You've got to be kidding, right?" /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""No, Coach said that we needed to stay in shape. I, Connie and Julie have been working out together," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Since when?" I asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Uh, since the season ended in March," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Vhat do vou do? To stay in shape?" Gunnar asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Well we lift weights, run, sometimes we rollerblade. Julie found a great yoga class at the Y. Great for flexibility," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Oh Yoga? I have always wanted to try it. Is it hard?" Mom asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""No, you should come with us sometime Casey," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I will," Mom said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Come on Charlie, please go running with me?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Are you kidding? No, its summer vacation, I am going to sleep in," I said. Bella snorted. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'll go with vou," Gunnar said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Really Gunnar?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yah," Gunnar said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Alright, but you two be careful," Casey said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""We will be," Bella said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"5:15 am June 30th, 1998 Bella's POV /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"The alarm clock went off at 5:15 I quickly got up and got changed. I knocked on the door to the boys room from our room. Gunnar answered, "You ready?" I whispered. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yah," Gunnar whispered back. I took one look at my boyfriend, with his head buried under the pillows and covers, asleep "lazy," I thought to myself./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"When I closed the door to the guys room, Casey told us "Please be careful, I will leave the door unlocked for you." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I promise,' I said I then turned to Gunnar. 'Come on Gunnar, let's go outside to warm up, We don't want to disturb Mr. Sleeping Beauty." Gunnar started to chuckle. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Once we stepped outside Gunner said, "It's chilly this morning." "Yeah about 50 degrees, But that's okay, we are going to be shredding layers as we are going." I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We finished with the warm up just as the sun was peeking over the motel. We took it slow to the park and increased our speed from there. We returned to the motel at 6:45 am. Charlie had just gotten out of bed. He had his hair all over the place. I immediately went in for a hug and said, "Good morning, sleepy head!"/span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Oh gross, your all sweaty!" Charlie said as he squirmed. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Gunnar, Casey and I just laughed. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Then you should have came and joined us sleepy head," I said as I let go of him to pick up my water bottle and drink some water. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you two have a good run?" Charlie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah ran about 10 miles," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""10 miles in an hour? That had to have been a pretty good pace," Casey said. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""She was a what you call a beast. I could barely keep up those last 2 miles. No wonder Adam is so fast," Gunner said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""You should come and join us tomorrow Charlie," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""And collapse and die on the side of the road? I think not," Charlie said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Well I am going to hit the shower," I said as I sat my water bottle down. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'll come join you," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I don't think so Charlie!" Casey said as she grabbed the back of his shirt. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Charlie gagged for a second and then said, "MOM!" /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Charlies POV/span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We left Casper, two hours later and got to Elko, Nevada at about 7:30 that night. When we checked in Bella asked the same questions to the desk clerk that she asked in Casper. She was disappointed that there wasn't as great of a running trail as there was in Casper. When we got to our rooms I asked her, "Your not seriously going for a run in the morning are you?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yes Charlie, I need to stay in shape," Bella said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Come on I want to go see Coach and Adam. Not worry about your running 10 miles," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""And we will Charlie. We will be at Coach Bombay's tomorrow afternoon," Mom said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Besides you were there when Coach stressed training in the off season, this is apart of the training. Or were you too busy looking at my breasts?" Bella asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie!" Mom said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I am not even going to answer that one," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Gunnar?" Bella asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""He was and Guy was looking at Connie's," Gunnar said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Great Gunnar you just broke guy code!" I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"July 1st, 1998 Bella's POV /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"I and Gunnar got up early this morning and ran the 6 miles to the end of Elko's trail and back. I was disappointed that I could not get in the four more miles that I needed to make it to ten. I hoped that I could get those 4 miles in when we got to Yuba City. After we got back from our run I decided to go for a swim to help get a mile under my belt and the swimming was great to soothe my aching joints, stupid change in Elevation. I was nearly done with my water work out when Charlie walked into the pool area. "I thought I might find you here," Charlie said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Hi," I said and then I went back into my swimming stance and swam the entire length of the pool./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Are you nearly done? We want to have breakfast and get out of here," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Just a couple of more laps and then I need to do some water crunches," I said and then I swam to the other side of the pool /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Water crunches what are those?" Charlie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Sit ups but done in the water. You should try them Charlie, they are just a tad more difficult than land ones," I said and then I swam to the other side of the pool./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'll just stick to land," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Suit yourself," I said and then I swam to the other side of the pool. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Charlie watched me swim the next three laps before he said, "What is with you?" /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""What do you mean," I said before I swam to the other side of the pool, my last lap. I had completed 60 laps in a 40 foot long pool or about 799 yards which was almost but not quite half a mile. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Ten miles of running daily, Yoga, Swimming for the last half hour, lifting weights, water crunches. Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?" Charlie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie, I am still me,'' I said as I lay on my back in the pool, getting ready to do my crunches, 'but Coach Orion said that we needed to do a summer training program. I don't know about you Charlie but I want to go and play College Hockey, there are a ton of universities that are Starting Women's Hockey Programs in the fall, I want to get a scholarship to go. I want to play in the Olympics in 2002 in Salt Lake City. One… two… three... four… " I said while I was doing my crunches. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Charlie scoffed before he said, "Salt Lake is four years away." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Thirteen… 3 and 1⁄2 Charlie. That's not a lot of time, Sixteen…. Seventeen… Eighteen," I said as I continued my crunches. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Your crazy Isabella Lillian Banks," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I may be crazy Charles Alexander Conway, but your a slob. Twenty nine, thirty, thirty one, thirty two." I said as I continued my crunches. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I am not a slob," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Thirty five Thirty six, Mark my words Charlie when I am up on the stand receiving my medal, and your sitting in the crowd watching me, you will regret you didn't train harder. Forty Eight, Forty nine, Fifty," I said as I finished my crunches. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Bella be realistic, there are only 20 spots on an Olympic team, there's going to be 100's of girls trying out. Your chances of actually making it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Charlie said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I have to try, Everyone is thinking that Adam and I are going to go all of the way. For Adam that's the NHL for me its the Olympics there is no professional women's hockey teams. I don't want to be sitting in a rocker when I am fifty regretting that I didn't try out ," I said as I climbed out of the pool. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""You know there is good reason why there are no professional women's hockey teams. No one would show up. The only reason why we let you play with us guys is because we have been together for the last 6 years," Charlie said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""So let me get this straight, you don't like that Julie, Connie and I play with you?" I asked as I was toweling myself off. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""No I am not saying that, it's just that it's pointless to have a women's anything team, because you girls won't bring in enough money to make it float. We are letting you play because we have always been a co-ed team," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""We are a co-ed team, because there is not enough girls at Eden Hall that want to play hockey. If there was a women's hockey team, and us 3 girls were on it. Would you come to our games?" I asked as I turned around to show him my harder more sculpted abs. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Probably not, because you would not….. WOW!" Charlie said and then his tongue hung out of his mouth. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""What?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Is it my imagination or have those abs gotten better looking since you have started this work out routine?" Charlie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Maybe," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""You could be the cover girl for the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated," Charlie said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"I rolled my eyes before I closed Charlies mouth, "Charlie put your tongue back in your mouth. I want to get a shower, and eat before we leave for Coach Bombays. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"We were out of Elko at 9:30 in the morning and I pulled into Coach Bombays and Ms. MacKay's Driveway at 5:00 that afternoon. Coach ran to the car to greet us, enveloping Charlie in a hug, "Hey Charlie, how are you?" Coach said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'm good, Coach. You?" Charlie asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Great! Hey Casey, hello Gunnar," Coach said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Hello," Casey and Gunnar said together. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Where's Bella?" Coach asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Right behind you," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Coach turned around and he gave me a big hug. "Hey Bella how are you?" Coach asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'm good. How's Adam?" I asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""He's doing good, you won't believe the changes in him. You are looking fit, are you training this offseason?" Coach asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yep, Coach Orion said so, I'm trying to run 10 miles a day. I only made it six so far, I'm hoping that I could go run another 4 miles before we got to go see Adam," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I think I am going to be able to make your wish come true, because its 4 hours from here to Lakeside Academy. We have to add at least another hour or two with Hans in the back seat. We are not going to go and see him until tomorrow. Why don't you kids get your Luggage in the house. You can get changed and we will go, since it seems to be getting a little nicer," Coach said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Cool give me 5 minutes," I said. I took exactly 5 minutes to get my luggage in the house and changed quickly. Coach put on his rollerblades, while I was stretching. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I hope you don't mind me skating while you run?" Coach asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Nope not at all," I said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I'm proud of you Bella for doing the training that you have been doing, this off season," Coach said./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Thanks. Can you tell that to the 6 foot 1 inch slob I'm currently seeing?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Charlie?" Coach asked./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Yeah, he was there when Coach Orion stressed that training this off season is going to be very important. It went in one ear and out the other," I said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Coach Bombay laughed before he said, "hmm that sounds like Charlie. I wouldn't worry about it too much, when your on the first line and he's on the fourth next fall, he will learn from his mistakes." /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Thanks Coach, shall we go?" I asked. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""Sure," Coach said. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s3" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Bold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 17pt;"A/N: Well? Thanks to bobcatwriter who wrote this. What will happen next? Will Bella tell Adam about her and Charlie? Or will he find out on his own? Let me know/span/p 


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside.**

ADAM P.O.V:

July 2nd 1998

I had been doing pretty good on my diet and exercise program, I lost about 10 pounds that first week after not eating and then bingeing and throwing up. Then I lost 5 pounds every week following that. I was down 30 pounds as of last week. No one noticed what was going on. I still had a spare tire, but it wasn't as big as it used to be. My fat in my chin and my bat wings were melting away. Today was the last day of my not eating and tomorrow was binge and purge. Even the guys were commenting on how good I was looking. I told them thanks. The only person who never said anything to me at all about this was Annie. But like I have said before;I knew from before Annie didn't really care about me.

I was nervous about seeing Charlie. We didn't exactly end the last time on friendly terms. Family's are allowed to come up for a max of two weeks during the summer to be with their child that was enrolled here during the past school year, those that were enrolled during the previous summer had there week during the spring. Coach, Ms. Mackay, Casey, Charlie, Bella, Gunnar and Ollie where coming to see me. Ollie was flying into Reno and then driving up here from there. The rest were driving in from Yuba City. Ollie had arrived a full hour before the rest did. I showed him down to the family cabins and he got himself settled in.

When the rest of the gang had arrived I did the same thing with them, Michelle, Gordon, Hans had a cabin to themselves. Casey, Charlie and Gunnar were in another Cabin and Ollie and Bella were in the last cabin.

"ADAM!" Bella gave me a big squeeze.

"Hi Bella," I said.

"Are you losing weight?" Bella asked.

"Yeah a couple pounds here and there. Trying to get back into Hockey shape," I said with a smile on my face, I didn't tell her exactly how much I lost.

During dinner I just played with my food, I didn't feel like eating it. Actually I couldn't eat it, my stomach was not protesting as loud since I was drinking a lot of water and peeing like a racehorse, now.

Michele notice that I was playing with my food and said, "You not hungry, Adam?"

"No, I uh had a big lunch." I said. Gunner, Casey and Michelle furrowed there eyes at me.

After dinner we were to play a fun game with the other boys and family's that were up at lakeside. About halfway thru the 1st game I decided that I was going to go to bed. "I'm tired, I am going to go to bed," I said.

"Bed? Already? Adam it's 8:30," Charlie said.

"I'M TIRED CHARLIE, LEAVE ME ALONE!" I yelled at him.

"Alright Adam, calm down, geeze!" Charlie said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well last night, Goodnight," I said.

"Goodnight," Charlie, Bella and Gunnar said together.

The next morning I got up at 5:00 and did my workout and weigh in. I was pleased with myself I had lost another 5 pounds for total weight loss of 35 pounds. I took a shower and measured myself. I lost 4 inches I started at a 43 inch waist and I was down to 39 inch waist. I had 7 more inches to go. I figured that I would start to see my abs with another 25 pounds of weight gone and at 5 pounds per week. That would be another 5 weeks.

"Well" Treban asked when I walked in from my shower.

"Another 5 pounds," I said.

"Nice," Treban said.

"I know right and my waist is 39 inches. I think I might see some abs with another 25 pounds of weight loss," I said.

"This sucks, I am not going to be able to see the final result from you," Treban said.

"Oh that's right you're leaving in a couple of days," I said.

"Well you will have to come out to San Jose when you have gotten back into shape and show me. Maybe I can get tickets to a Sharks, turn you into Sharks fan," Treban said.

"Ha, nothing doing. There's talk of a pro team coming back to Minneapolis so I am going to wait and see about that one," I said.

My family showed slowly at the main house. With Gunner and Bella walking in last. It was common to let our guests go first and then we were allowed to get our food. As I sat down Coach looked at what I had for breakfast, "Boy that is a lot of food. Hungry this morning Adam?"

"Yeah a little bit," I said as I started to dig into my Bellgin Waffles.

"Adam I don't get how you can lose weight and still eat that crap," Bella said.

"Just lucky I guess," I said.

As soon as breakfast was done I had the need to go and throw up. "Oh God my nose again," I said.

What's wrong Adam?" Ollie asked.

"Oh I must have developed an allergy up here, my nose drains down my throat and makes me nauseous."

Mike came by and said, "Nose bugging you again Adam?"

"Yeah" I said.

"This is the weirdest darn Allergy I have ever seen," Mike said.

"What do you mean?" Coach said.

"Well it appears for 3 days and then disappears for 3 days," Mike said.

I shrugged my shoulders and then I said "excuse me."

Charlies POV

Something is up with Adam. Last night he didn't eat a thing and then this morning he had a huge breakfast and then claimed his allergies were making him nauseous. Allergies don't do that, Averman has Allergies, Averman's allergies are present everyday from when the tree's start to bloom until the Ground freezes over.

Gunner's POV  
I followed Adam into the bathroom. "Oh come on stomach, give it up," I heard Adam say. Then I saw it in the mirror: he stuck two fingers down his throat, and then he threw up his entire breakfast. "I hate that taste," Adam said to himself.

I quickly hid behind a wall as Adam flushed the toilet and walked out to wash his hands. "So when were vov planning on telling me?" I asked.

Adam jumped and said, "Jesus, Gunner you scared me to death."

"What are vou doing, Adam?" I asked.

"Nothing, I am telling you it's my allergies," Adam said smiling at me.

"No, I don't believe you. My cousin has allergies, Allergies just don't disappear for three days," I said.

Adam rolled his eyes before he said, "Alright I can't lie to you. But you have to promise that you won't tell anyone else. I don't eat for three days, drink nothing but water. Then on the three days where I do eat. I eat a lot of food and after 5 or 10 minutes after I have finished eating I come in the bathroom and throw it up."

"Vou do this at every meal?" I asked.

"Yes," Adam said.

"Vou doing this on purpose, why?" I asked.

"Because Gunnar I have always been trained to be the best, be number 1, be the fastest, be the skinniest. I put on at least 80 pounds since August of 1996," Adam said.

"Vou didn't eat last night, did vou not eat the last 3 days?" I asked.

Adam just shook his head yes.

"I'm no doctor, but I don't think that this is good for vou," I said.

"I will stop when I hit my goal weight," Adam said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"148 pounds," Adam said.

"Where are you at now?" I asked.

"194 pounds," Adam said.

"Adam that's not okay," I said.

"You have to promise me you wont tell, PROMISE ME NOW," Adam said.

I didn't want to, but I didn't want to lose him either, "I promise. But I don't like it," I said.

"Well too bad your lips are sealed," Adam said.

Then he kissed me. Usually I love his kisses, I hated this one.

"Your breath stinks," I said.

Charlies POV  
I had to go and visit the bathroom. So I followed Gunnar and Adam into the bathroom, I heard them talking when I walked in, "I'm no doctor, but I don't think that this is good for vou," Gunnar said.

"I will stop when I hit my goal weight," Adam said.

"What is that?" Gunnar asked.

"148 pounds," Adam said.

"Where are vou at now?" Gunnar asked.

"194 pounds," Adam said.

"Adam that's not okay," Gunnar said.

"You have to promise me you wont tell, PROMISE ME NOW," Adam said.

"I promise. But I don't like it," Gunnar said.

I knew something was wrong with Adam I was sick to my stomach but I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to make the same promise to Adam that Gunnar just made to him. I quickly left I had a few tears in my eyes, "Come on Charlie, tears are for sissies," I thought to myself.

"Everything okay?" Bella asked.

"Yeah," I said then I felt guilty because I just lied to her.

Bella's POV

Adam, Charlie, Coach, Michele, Baby Hans, Casey, Gunner, Ollie and I all went for a hike out in the woods. We had been out there for almost an hour and we were heading back to the residence house. Coach was leading with Baby Hans, Michele, Charlie, Casey and Gunner in the middle and Ollie and I near the back, with Adam bringing up the rear. I looked back at Adam when I saw him hold his hand to his head, then stumble and fall down. "COACH, MICHELE ADAM!" I screamed.

"Adam are you okay," Ollie asked.

"Yeah, I must have not been drinking enough water. I just stumbled, I'll be okay," Adam said as the others neared Adam.

"Here take some water," Casey said.

"How's your foot? And your ribs?" Ollie asked.

"IT'S FINE SEE," Adam said showing us his ankle.

"Do you think you can stand?" Coach asked.

"Yeah," Adam said and he tried to stand up and fell backwards on his butt.

"I guess not," Adam said.

"Here we will help you," Charlie and Ollie said.

"Adam?" Gunnar said.

"GUNNAR I TOLD YOU I WILL BE FINE!," Adam said.

Once we got Adam up to the residence, we got some ice on Adam's ankle just in case he rolled it again.

"Coach Bombay, Ms. Michele I know why Adam is so cranky and why he fell down while on our hike," Gunnar said.

"GUNNAR! YOU PROMISED!" Adam hissed.

"What is it Gunnar?" Coach asked.

"This morning after I followed Adam into the bathroom I saw him stick two fingers down his throat, and forced himself to throw up." Gunner said.

"Adam is this true?" Michele asked.

My eyes got wide.

"No," Adam said.

"Yes it is true," Charlie said.

"CHARLIE AND GUNNAR ARE LYING. I HAVE LIARS FOR BEST FRIENDS!" Adam yelled.

"I overheard Gunnar and Adam talking," Charlie said.

"What did they say?" I think his name was Mike, asked.

"Adam said that he would stop when he hit his goal weight. Gunnar asked him what that was. Adam said 148 pounds. Gunnar asked him where he was at right now. Adam said that he was at 194 pounds," Charlie said.

"Adam you have Bulimia," Michele said.

"Annie call the ambulance," Mike said.

"Adam Why?" I said as the tears started to run down my face, I knew what it was. I read stories about it in my girl magazines that I got each month.

"DON'T YOU GET IT? I'M FAT! I NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT TO GET BACK INTO HOCKEY SHAPE! THIS IS THE FASTEST WAY TO DO THAT AND I AM DOING A PRETTY DAMN GOOD JOB!" Adam screamed.

"Adam you're killing yourself," Ollie said.

"I DON'T CARE. IT'S MY BODY AND I WILL DO WITH IT WHAT I WANT!" Adam yelled.

"No Adam, you are going to eat something right now!" Mike said.

"MAKE ME MIKE!" Adam yelled.

"I can't do that," Mike said softly.

"But I can, I will start a feeding tube down your throat, through your stomach and into your large intestines," Another man said as he came up to the table.

"I WILL JUST TAKE IT OUT DR. FREEMAN," Adam said.

"Adam there are some serious consequences, you know better than that." Coach said.

"I DON'T CARE. NO BODY CARES FOR ME!" Adam yelled.

"I CARE YOU ADAM! YOUR MY BROTHER, I DON'T WANT TO WATCH YOU DIE," I said through the tears and then I launched into Charlies arms.

"Me too, I don't want to see this happen. If you die it will kill mom and dad," Ollie said with tears in his eyes.

"LIKE THEY CARE, THEY DISOWNED ME," Adam yelled.

"Adam your body is eating itself from the inside out. We have to get you medical attention," Cassie said.

"The ambulance is on its way," Annie said.

"I AM NOT GOING TO GET MEDICAL ATTENTION AND I AM GOING TO KEEP GOING WITH THIS PROGRAM. I NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT," Adam yelled.

"NO ADAM NO. THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT. YOU NEED A DOCTOR'S SUPERVISION, TO LOSE WEIGHT," Coach Bombay yelled.

"NO, I AM GOING TO KEEP ON MY PROGRAM. I HAVE LOST A GOOD AMOUNT OF WEIGHT AND I NEED TO KEEP GOING," Adam yelled.

The EMT's had to strap Adam down to the gurney putting two sets of straps on each arm and leg. I and Ollie rode in the ambulance with him to the hospital. I cried the majority of the way to the hospital. Adam gave us stern looks. I didn't know who he was madder at Gunnar, Charlie or us.

Gordon's POV

I was astonished at what Adam had been doing. It seemed like the rest of the staff was shocked. I didn't know what else I could do for him. He had to understand that what he was doing was dangerous. Halfway to the hospital I got mad at him and the more miles closer to the hospital the madder I got at him. Thank God Michelle was driving, because I seriously would have gotten us into an accident. I did the only thing that I could do.

"This is Phillip Banks," I heard Phillip said.

"Hi Phillip its Gordon Bombay," I said.

"What the hell do you want?" Phillip asked.

"It's about Adam," I said.

"Who?" Phillip said.

"Your middle son. Phillip get your head out of your ass and listen to me, Adam's in trouble," I said.

Phillip hung up on me.

Adam's POV

I had arrived at the hospital, second time in the last six months. Lakeside had called ahead and told them what was going on. I was undergoing tests lots of tests. There was imaging, xray, mri, taking skin grafts, blood work lot of blood work. I was admitted into the hospital. I wanted to die, I didn't have the will to live anymore.

Gunnar's POV

I had felt guilty. Oh so guilty I had promised Adam that I wouldn't tell anybody and yet I broke that promise. I sat in the waiting room for hours, feeling guilty. Coach Bombay came over and talked to me.

"How are you doing Gunnar," Coach Bombay said.

"Guilty," I said.

"How come?" Coach asked.

"Because I broke a promise. I told Adam that I would not tell anybody about this, but I knew that what he was doing wasn't safe. I don't know if Adam will speak to me again. I love him. I hope I did the right thing," I said

"You did Gunnar, I'm proud of you for speaking up," Coach Bombay said.

"Then how come I feel so bad?" I asked.

"Well because you broke his trust. If he does break up with you, then that is the way it is, there are plenty of fish in the sea. It's better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all," Coach Bombay said.

BELLA P.O.V:

I had called the Ducks.

"Hey guys," I whispered into the receiver. Jesse had rounded them all up at his place.

"Ace, what the hell's happened this time?" Portman asked.

"Adam has Bulimia."

"Say what now?"

"He's not been eating some days and when he does he throws it back up on purpose it's eating away at his organs, and…" I let a sob slip. "Why does he do this?" I choked out. "Does he have some otherworldly mission to make us feel the worst pain possible."

**A/N: Well? Sorry it's been a while and sorry about the last chapter I will fix it soon. Credit to the incredible bobcatwriter. What do you think? Was Gunnar doing the right thing speaking up? Will Adam forgive him and Charlie? What lies ahead? Let me know, your ideas and such.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

July 4th, 1998

Adam's POV

Today is Independence Day. Usually I would be out on the family boat, at the Bank's cabin in Northern Minnesota, then we would have a barbecue and shoot off about a trillion dollars worth of fireworks between us and the neighbors all around the lake. This 4th of July I am stuck in a hospital. I didn't dare look at Gunnar I was so pissed at him for spilling my secret. I didn't even look at Charlie either. He was my best friend how he could betray me like he did drove me up the wall. That and the closeness between him and Bella was making me sick. I wanted to go home. I meant back to Lakeside, I wanted to keep on with my program to keep getting skinny, I am Fat and here comes the weight back on. Doctor Jobman came into my room, he was a lanky fellow and said, "The test results are coming in."

"WHEN CAN I GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE?" I yelled from my bed. I had been tied down to the bed for the last 24 hours.

"My you are direct aren't you?" Dr. Jobman said.

"Doctor what is wrong with my brother," Bella asked.

"Yes Adam lost weight, but he lost the wrong kind of weight. We suspect that he lost nothing but water those first 3 or so days. Then at the end of the first week he lost his muscle tone. Then for the last 5 weeks He has been losing fat, more muscle tone and some of his internal organs.' Dr. Jobman got onto a computer and had everyone gather around my bed. 'This picture is of a normal 15 year old of normal weight and height.' He then clicked over to the next screen, 'This is Adam. Notice what is missing."

"Adam part of your heart, Kidney and Liver is missing," Bella said.

"That is correct Bella," Dr. Jobman said.

"How did you know that Bella?" Charlie asked.

"Some of us actually paid attention in Biology, Charlie," Bella said.

"SO WHEN CAN I GET OUT OF HERE?" I yelled.

"WHEN YOU BUILD BACK THE PARTIAL ORGANS THAT ARE MISSING! But we gotta get you on a proper diet," Dr. Jobman said.

"I AM NOT GOING TO EAT IT!" I yelled.

"Too late it's already in," Dr. Jobman said.

"WHERE?" I yelled.

"In through your stomach," Dr. Jobman said.

"I WANT IT OUT, I WANT TO DIE!" I yelled.

"At 15, no way. To many years left in front of you, son," Dr. Jobman said with his arms crossed.

"YOU DON'T GET IT, NOBODY WANTS ME! MY PARENTS DISOWNED ME I HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LIVE FOR!" I yelled.

"WE WANT YOU ADAM, WE LOVE YOU!" Coach, Ms. MacKay, Bella, Ollie, Cassie, Charlie and Gunner all said.

" YOUR ALL LYING, YOU ALL SAY YOU WANT ME NOW AND THEN THE MINUTE I TURN MY BACK IT'S THE OPPOSITE I WANT TO DIE!" I yelled.

"You want to die? Alright fine,' Doctor Jobman said and then he grabbed a face mask and turned up a valve of something on the wall and put the mask on my face, 'Here take a breath a really deep breath, You've screwed up everything else. Your going to need help."

I breathed very swallow.

"OH COME ON SON, YOU WANT TO DIE YOU NEED TO TAKE A REALLY A REALLY DEEP BREATH YOU WANT TO DIE I AM NOT STOPPING YOU GO AHEAD AND BREATH DEEP," Dr. Jobman yelled.

"ADAM NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Bella screamed at me and then a fresh wave of tears came down on her angelic face.

"YOU WANT DEATH WE HAVE LOTS OF IT AROUND HERE! GO AHEAD SUCK IT IN!" Dr. Jobman yelled at me, he had the face mask on my face to kill me. "GO AHEAD SUCK IT IN, I AM NOT STOPPING YOU."

"NO ADAM NO," Bella yelled at me she had move tears come down her face, then she launched into Charlie's Arms.

"OH COME ON DO IT! SUCK IT IN!" Doctor Jobman yelled.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU? YOUR CRAZY? I screamed at the doctor. He then removed the mask from my face. "YOUR TRYING TO KILL ME!" I yelled.

"Of course I am trying to kill you that's what you want right?" Dr. Jobman said.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled at him.

"Now that's more like it. Your fighting to stay alive now aren't you?" Dr. Jobman asked.

I broke down in tears, I felt my arms getting released from the bed. I pulled my arms up to my eyes to cover them. I didn't care that anyone might think that I am a sissy.

"The will to live is a lot stronger than your will to die! Remember that son!" Dr. Jobman said then I heard the valve close. The next thing I know Bella attacked me in my bed in a hug, she was crying too!

"I'm sorry. I'm so so so so so so sorry for everything that I have ever done to you, please please please forgive me." Bella said through tears.

Ollie joined us in the hug I felt his tears too and then he said, "Me too, Adam!"

We cried for a good 5 minutes before I asked, "What about mom and dad?"

"SCREW THEM! ALL THE PAIN AND HEARTBREAK IS NOT WORTH THE 6 MILLION DOLLARS WE ARE GOING TO GET WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, Ollie said.

I thought that it was crazy but important: I was getting my independence from my parents.

Bella's POV

"OH COME ON SON, YOU WANT TO DIE YOU NEED TO TAKE A REALLY A REALLY DEEP BREATH YOU WANT TO DIE I AM NOT STOPPING YOU GO AHEAD AND BREATH DEEP," Dr. Jobman yelled.

"ADAM NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed and then a fresh wave of tears came down on my face, I had been crying on and off for the last 24 hours.

"YOU WANT DEATH WE HAVE LOTS OF IT AROUND HERE! GO AHEAD SUCK IT IN!" Dr. Jobman yelled at Adam, he had the face mask on Adam's face to kill him. "GO AHEAD SUCK IT IN, I AM NOT STOPPING YOU."

"NO ADAM NO," I yelled and then I launched into Charlie's arms.

"OH COME ON DO IT! SUCK IT IN!" Doctor Jobman yelled.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU? YOUR CRAZY? YOUR TRYING TO KILL ME!" Adam yelled

"Of course I am trying to kill you that's what you want right?" Dr. Jobman said.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Adam yelled. I pulled away slightly from Charlie.

"Now that's more like it. Your fighting to stay alive now aren't you?" Dr. Jobman asked.

Adam broke down in tears, Dr. Jobman and I released Adam's arms from the bed. he pulled his arms up to his eyes to cover them.

"The will to live is a lot stronger than your will to die! Remember that son!" Dr. Jobman said then I saw him close the valve.

I attacked Adam in his bed in a hug, I was crying buckets of tears! "I'm sorry. I'm so so so so so so sorry for everything that I have ever done to you, please please please forgive me." I said through tears.

Ollie joined us in the hug he was crying too and then he said, "Me too, Adam!"

We cried for a good 5 or 10 minutes before Adam asked, "What about mom and dad?"

"SCREW THEM! ALL THE PAIN AND HEARTBREAK IS NOT WORTH THE 6 MILLION DOLLARS WE ARE GOING TO GET WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, Ollie said.

I thought that it was crazy but important mine and Adam's independence from our parents.

We all took turns being with Adam. I and Ollie had a shift together. Gordon and Michele would relieve us and Casey would take the night shift until Adam fell asleep at night. Only Charlie and Gunner would not come up to the hospital to see him. I think they were scared.

**A/N: Well? Credit to the incredible bobcatwriter. What do you think? What wad Adam thinking? What will happen next? What are your ideas? What will Adam do next? What will happen when Gunnar and Charlie do turn up? Let me know, your ideas and such.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

July 5th, 1998 Bella's POV

I ran into Dr. Jobman in the hallway on my way up to see Adam. "Dr. Jobman?" I asked.

"Yes Bella?" Dr. Jobman asked.

"Yesterday when my brother wanted to die, what made you want to put the mask over his face?" I asked.

"His will to die. I knew that deep down inside he wasn't ready to die, yet. But there is no need to worry about it, he was breathing in oxygen," Dr. Jobman said.

I started to laugh, "That's a relief," I said.

"It happens all the time around here. That is what we are trained to do when we have a patent like your brother. Because I knew he wasn't ready yet. But this doesn't go any further then you and me," Dr. Jobman said.

"Done," I said.

Later after mine and Ollie's shift at the hospital. Ollie took me to McDonalds to get a drink. "So What are we doing here," I asked.

"Well I need your opinion and I didn't want Adam to be an influence on what I am about to say," Ollie said.

I got really scared before I said "what are you talking about Ollie?"

Ollie cleared his throat and then said, "What would you think if I moved home from France for good?"

I spat out my drink, "What? I thought you loved being in France."

"I do I mean I did. I don't know, with everything that Adam has undergone in the last couple of years I think I am needed more at home then in France," Ollie said.

"So that means that you would," I said.

"Quit hockey?' Ollie interrupted, 'Yeah maybe, I don't know. I had been talking to Dr. Binford for the last couple of days, they said that they could use some help raise money for their program. I would look after Adam and a few other things to help turn the unhealthy menu around into a healthy menu that will help all of the students now and into the future."

"What about what dad thinks, isn't he going to be upset?" I asked.

"Screw them, I am so tired of pleasing that shithead. I am 21 years old, almost 22 it's time that I live my own life. If I decided to take my schooling seriously when I was a Freshman in college I would be finishing with school next June, instead of piddling away the opportunity and landing in France to play hockey," Ollie said.

"I remember that, God Dad was so pissed at you for what you did. So I take it that France has lost its allure to you?" I asked.

"Yeah, it has. I was fine until Adam's relapse in cutting last September, but now it's not worth it," Ollie said.

"That's why you waited until mid November to go back to France?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I felt guilty. I'm your guys older brother. I am supposed to be looking out for you guys. I have failed as a big brother," Ollie said.

"Your blaming yourself for all of Adam's problems, aren't you?" I asked.

"Maybe, Bella. If I would have been here I would have taken all of the heat from dad instead of passing it down to Adam to deal with," Ollie said.

"I don't know I don't think it would have made a difference when Adam switched back to JV from varsity with Dad. I think Dad still would have disowned him, I don't know why?" I said.

"Because he thought that the Ducks were losers, always. I remember when I was playing for the Hawks and each time we faced District 5, there would be a new coach behind the bench. Until Bombay district five when through more coaches than Carter has pills. I think that you guys playing for the ducks reminded dad of where he came from. I guess he didn't want you two to face what he did when he was a kid. You don't know this, but before you two were born mom, dad and I lived in a dinky two bedroom apartment in south Minneapolis," Ollie said.

"What?" I asked.

"Yep, Phillip Arthur Banks the one million dollar man for the Minnesota North Stars living in a small two bedroom apartment, in the project's with his wife and 3 kids," Ollie said.

"Wow, what happened?" I asked.

"Mom forced him to buy a house in Edina, where you two were born. In fact your room wasn't don't yet, when you two decided to grace the world with your presence," Ollie said.

"Can you imagine, the three of us sharing a room together?" I asked.

"Well you two shared the same hot tub for 7 months. It took mom months to get you two into separate cribs, you were always all over each other," Ollie said.

"I guess deep down inside I always wanted to protect Adam," I said.

"No I think that sometimes it was the opposite," Ollie said.

"What about Francisca doesn't she get a say?" I asked.

"No, she and I aren't together anymore," Ollie said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ollie said.

"She had to have broken up with you if you don't want to talk about," I said.

"So what do you think?" Ollie asked.

"Well it's your life, so you can do with it what you want," I said.

"Thanks Bella, I knew I could count on your support," Ollie said.

I have a small confession," I said.

"What's that?" Ollie asked.

"I am thinking about asking for emancipation from mom and dad," I said.

"If you want emancipation from mom and dad, do it. It would should Adam that you care for him more then dad's money," Ollie said.

Later that night, I couldn't sleep. I woke Casey up at 2:30 am. "Casey?" I asked.

"What is it, Bella?" Casey asked.

"I can't sleep, can you drive me to the hospital?" I asked.

"Why?" Casey asked.

"I needed to see Adam, please?" I asked.

"Do I have to get dressed?" Casey asked.

"No I just need you to drop me off," I said.

"Alright, let me get my shoes," Casey said.

I had to really convince the nursing staff to let me stay with Adam in his room. It was past visiting hours and technically I was not allowed to stay. I had to plead with Adam's nurse to let me be in there with him. When Adam's nurse finally relented on letting me stay I went into Adam's room. I knew that he was sleeping pretty hard. I ended up climbing in bed with him, that bed was smaller than it looked with him and me in it together.

**A/N: Well? Credit to the incredible bobcatwriter. What do you think? What will happen if Bella does file for emancipation? What will happen next? What are your ideas? Was Dr. Jobman right in pretending to try and kill Adam? What will happen when Gunnar and Charlie do turn up? Let me know, your ideas and such.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

July 6th, 1998 Adam's POV

When I woke up this morning I had noticed that I didn't have any feeling in my right arm. I didn't know why my lower half was still tied down to the bed, so I was forced to sleep on my back. Something that took me a couple of nights to get used to since I was used to sleeping on my stomach. I looked over to my right side and found my sister curled up next to me her head on my shoulder.

"BELLA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THIS BED!" I screamed.

"What… woah," Bella said and then she fell onto the floor.  
"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes I am fine," Bella said as she got up. Luckily she landed on her ass and didn't hit her head.

"Good. Now what the hell were you doing in my bed?" I asked.

"I couldn't sleep, I came here in the middle of the night. I needed to sleep with my brother," Bella said.

"That is gross on so many levels," I said.

"You would not be saying that if it was Gunnar in this bed and not me," Bella said.

"Oh please, Gunnar hasn't been up here in the last day, I think that we are kind of through," I said as I rolled my eyes.

"He hasn't broken up with you yet," Bella said.

"Yeah right, who would want someone like me?" I said.

"I do! Don't be thinking about wanting to die again! I have something I need to tell you," Bella said.

"Yeah what's that?" I asked.

"When I get back to Minneapolis I am filing for emancipation from mom and dad," Bella said.

"What?" I asked.

"You heard me," Bella said.

"Emancipation from mom and dad, Why?" I asked.

"Because Ollie is right, they don't deserve to have us, since they abused us so much," Bella said.

"You realize that Dad will fight you tooth and nail over this," I said.

"I don't care; Adam. If Dad never disowned you, we would not be here in this situation. It's dad's fault that we are so screwed up," Bella said.

Breakfast had came and then Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and My psychiatrist came to pick on me in back to back to back to back order. I was so tired when my psychiatrist, Dr. Caseman was done with me I needed a nap before lunch. When I woke up I saw Bella sketching and Ollie reading a big thick book, that he was totally engrossed with. "Hey Bella what are you sketching?" I asked.

"Some inspiration that I got from this morning's walk with Physical Therapy," Bella said.

"Can I see it?" I asked.

"It's not done yet," Bella said.

"So? I want to see it please?" I asked.

"Bella if he wants to see it let him see it," Ollie said.

Bella sighed before saying, "Oh alright.' She got off her perch on the window box and came over to my bed. 'It's not done yet, I am not very good with self portraits."

It was a picture of me and her together. I was in my hospital gown walking down the hall while Bella was right beside me she had just finished her body and was working on her face and hair.

"It's good," I said.

"Thanks," she said. I would never have been as artistic as she was. I don't know where she got that talent from.

Bella's POV

Charlie, Gunnar and Casey came up to visit Adam in the hospital this afternoon. Coach and Ms. MacKay came up an hour before to see Adam. "Hey your looking good,man. How are you feeling?" Charlie asked.

"Better now that they have me untied, I am actually able to get up and visit the bathroom with supervision of course," Adam said.

"Good I am glad," Charlie said.

"Hi" Gunnar said.

"Hi" Adam said. They shared a kiss on the cheek. I was slightly discussed with it, but I suppose that if my brother is gay I needed to accept it. I was just glad that Charlie wasn't that way.

"Oh Good your all here," a lady said as she walked in. "I am Dr. Caseman and what we like to do with the family all gathered together called never had I ever," Dr. Caseman said as she passed out paddle boards to all of us.

"What's this game for?" Coach Bombay said.

"It's an exercise to show Adam that we are all not as perfect as we all pretend to be," Dr. Caseman said.

The rules of the game were simple we were all given a paddle with the exception of Baby Hans that had I have on one side and I never had on the other side and we had to be honest. Adam, Charlie and I were sitting on the couch in Adam's room. Charlie was in between Adam and I, Ollie had the reclining chair, Gunnar had the straight back desk chair and we had to go and get 4 chairs from the meeting room for Coach, Ms. MacKay, Cassie and Dr. Caseman

The first 20 or so questions were soft ball questions. Things like never I ever slept in regular clothing or thought a cartoon character was hot. Coach's reaction to the cartoon character question was hilarious, because it was Wilma Flintstone. "I was 9 years old," Coach said.

Then came the question I had been dreading; Never had I ever had sex with another person. Charlie was the last person to raise his paddle to I have.

"Wait a minute, wait just a minute. I knew about Reilly raping my sister. Charlie you were a virgin when I left?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, I and Bella had sex together. And it was good!" Charlie said.

"YOU HAD SEX WITH MY SISTER? I OUTTA KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!" Adam yelled and then he put his hands around Charlies neck and pressed down.

"Adam, let go," Dr. Caseman said. He still kept pressing on Charlie's airway.

"Adam, Adam it was my idea, I needed to know if I could be intimate with a man, any man. Charlie and I started seeing each other again. I asked him," I said.

"IS THIS TRUE CHARLIE?" ADAM YELLED.

"Yes, oxygen I can't breath! World getting dark!" Charlie said with a strain on his vocal cords. Then Adam released Charlie, who took several deep breaths.

"Are you okay Charlie?" I asked.

"Yeah I think so," Charlie said.

"Adam we will be talking about this in a future session," Dr. Caseman said.

"Cassie are you okay with this? Because I don't think that I am comfortable with them exploring this side of there sexuallity at 15 years old!" Coach said.

"I wasn't at first and then I realized that it's a part of life, as long as they are careful and if they do see other people that they are truthful to them when they approach that stage of their relationship and I know that Bella went on birth control," Cassie said.

"How did you know that?" Charlie asked.

"Genny Moreau," Cassie said.

"Oh great Connie's mom is just as much of a balber mouth as Connie is," Charlie groaned.

Coach just shook his head, I don't that he could picture the four of us in a sexual relationship.

"Okay, let's take a break from Never have I ever. Can you tell us the age's you were when you lost your virginity?" Dr. Caseman asked.

"I was eighteen," Coach Bombay said.

"Twenty-one," Ms. MacKay said.

"Nineteen, I got pregnant with Charlie on that one," Cassie said.

"Fourteen," Gunnar said.

"Fourteen," Adam said.

"Fifteen," Charlie said.

"Does rape count?" I asked. "No," Dr. Caseman said. "Fifteen," I said.

Ollie coughed and quickly said something.

"What was that Ollie I didn't hear you," Dr. Caseman said.

"I was thirteen, Alright? Thirteen. I was playing truth or dare and I was dared," Ollie said.

"Alright let's take a deep breath in,' Dr. Caseman said. Which we did, 'and blow it out like a balloon," Dr. Caseman said. "Alright let's take another deep breath in and blow it back out," Dr. Caseman said.

"How old were you when you first kissed somebody or was kissed by somebody?" Dr Caseman asked.

"Fifteen," Casey said.

"Same here," Ms MacKay said.

"Fourteen," Coach told us.

"Johnson kissed me when I was eight," I said.

"Fourteen," Charlie said. "Linda."

"Freshman year," Adam said. "One of the cheerleaders. I was drunk off my arse and Riley dared me."

"It vas during the Junior Goodvill Games, and Olaf was there in my room after the loss," Gunnar said somewhat sheepishly.

"I would've been about seven and I just walked up to Tilda Mason and kissed her."

Then came the next question that really surprised me. "Never had I ever, kissed someone that was the same sex as me," Dr. Caseman said. I, Ollie, Coach, Ms. Mackay, Cassie all raised the never had side. Adam, Gunnar and Charlie raised the I have.

"What? Charlie? Who?" I asked.

"Adam, last Thanksgiving," Charlie said.

"You kissed my boyfriend?" I yelled at my brother.

"He kissed me first," Adam said. I got up and ran out of the room. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to leave.

"Bella, Bella, wait," I heard Charlie say in the lobby of the hospital. I had tears in my eyes I just ran faster the man that I loved, the man I willingly gave myself too had kissed my brother.

Charlie had grabbed my arm in the parking "Would you stop a minute?" Charlie asked.

"HOW COULD YOU, HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? YOU KISSED MY BROTHER! THEN YOU KISSED ME AND HAD SEX WITH ME! THAT'S LIKE WAY WORSE THEN GUNNAR AND ADAM HAVING SEX TOGETHER!" I yelled.

"I know, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking but if it makes you feel better is that I like your kisses way better," Charlie said.

I slapped him, hard!

"I guess I deserve one," Charlie asked as he cupped his cheek.

"YOU THINK? DON'T COME NEAR ME CHARLES ALEXANDER CONWAY! I HATE YOU! WE ARE DONE" I said. And then I ran off. I didn't know where I was running too, but I had to get away from them!

Adam's POV

Bella left, Charlie went after her. We all sat there for a good five minutes, Before Gunnar said, "I can't believe it Adam. Kissing Charlie?"

"I know, I'm sorry, Gunnar," I pleaded with him. I didn't know what else to say. True I didn't start the kiss but I didn't know what to do to make Gunnar feel better.

Then we heard from my third floor window Bella yelling, "HOW COULD YOU, HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? YOU KISSED MY BROTHER! THEN YOU KISSED ME AND HAD SEX WITH ME! THAT'S LIKE WAY WORSE THEN GUNNAR AND ADAM HAVING SEX TOGETHER!"

Then within a minute we saw Charlie getting slapped. "YOU THINK? DON'T COME NEAR ME CHARLES ALEXANDER CONWAY! I HATE YOU! WE ARE DONE!" Bella yelled. Ms. MacKay saw the four of us spying on Bella and Charlie from my hospital room. Coach, Ollie, Gunnar and I.

"Bella and Charlie would not appreciate you spying on them," Ms. MacKay said.

When people started to leave, Gunnar said, "It ofer! Goodbye." In three short words I lost my boyfriend and Bella broke up with Charlie. I sat in my bed and cried.

**A/N: Well? Credit to bobcatwriter who wrote most of this and then I added. What do you think? Were Bella and Gunnar right to break up with their respective boyfriend's? Where do you think Bella's comes from? What are your ideas? What are your thoughts on the various confessions? What will the Banks children do next? Let me know, your ideas and such.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

ADAM P.O.V:

I can't believe I did it again! Bella broke up with me. Over a stupid little thing as kissing her brother. I really hated Dr. Caseman for asking that question. I wasn't sure what I was doing I was trying to get Adam to shut up and that was the only way I could get him to shut up. I was sitting on the back porch of Coach's place. It was hot and a little muggy but not bad.

"Hey Charlie," said a voice behind me.

I turned it was coach, "Hi Coach. Has Bella came home yet?" I asked.

"Nope not yet, how are you doing?" Coach asked.

"Miserable. What's worse is that I thought about the kiss between me and Adam over the months the more I hated it. But I don't know how I can prove it to Bella," I said.

"Boy you sure are in a sticky spot, aren't you? Caught between your best friend and your girl. Been there many times," Coach said.

"How did it all turn out?" I asked.

"Well if memory serves, not well. I usually lose the best friend and the girl. One time the best friend and the girl married each other," Coach said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeap and divorced 5 years later," Coach said.

I laughed, "That's good. But what do I do about Bella? I still love her, even through I never told her the truth. It's not that I didn't want to, I just didn't know how to," I said.

"That sounds tough. But look on the bright side," Coach said.

"And that is?" I asked.

"Bella and Adam can't get married to each other, because they are brother and sister," Coach said.

I started to laugh a really deep belly laugh.

Then we heard the door slide open and shut. Gunnar plopped down next to us. "I can't believe I vas so stuipid," Gunnar said.

"Stupid about what?" Coach said.

"Breaking up vith Adam. I am sure he didn't enjoy vour kiss as much as vou did," Gunnar said.

"I don't know Gunnar this is Adam we are talking about," I said.

"Gunnar don't tell me that you feel guilty about this," Coach asked. "Vah.

In my country we don't go to bed angry. Always vork it out. Now I don't know if I vant to stay next fall or vot," Gunnar said.

"Gunnar what are you talking about, I'm your roommate next year?" I asked. I knew I couldn't afford a room by myself and everybody else was rooming together. Even Julie, Connie and Bella took a triple occupancy room together, because Bella didn't want to be by herself anymore.

At least that is what she told me, Julie and Connie. Although deep down I thought it was something different. My scholarship just covered my tuition and my room and board for at least a double occupancy room. I actually mom would have to pay for the other bed for me to live in a single room. I knew I couldn't live at home during the winter because we would always be the last neighborhood touched for snow removal. The bus situation was not ideal and I didn't have enough in savings to buy a car. I would have to work to earn a car and I can't do that with 5 plus hours of school work a night, plus hockey and Orion's demands to maintain a B average or we ride the pine pony. Even if I did get a job at a grocery store. I would be done with practice at 6 work from 6:30-10:30 come home be working on my homework until 3 am at least and then have to be up at 7:30 for breakfast and class. I wouldn't make it thru the day. I barely made it thru the day working on homework until 1 or 2. Now I really wished I had Adam's money. He could actually be able to afford a car at sixteen.

"Vou heard me, vou might have to find a new rommate next vear," Gunnar said.  
"Please Gunnar I am begging you, think about this before you act," I said.

"I have been and Charlie I don't think that I can face him after he betrayed me," Gunnar said.

I was scared really scared.

"Boys, can I offer you a piece of advice?" Coach asked.

"What is it, Coach?" I asked.

"The hurt won't last forever. Eventually you will heal and be ready to love again," Coach said.

"Why is it that you sound like a song from Michael Bolton? I asked.

"Vho's that?" Gunnar asked.

"The guy mom goes to every time she gets her heart broken," I said. "Ah," Gunnar said.

BELLA P.O.V:

I ran around Sacramento. I wasn't sure how far I ran but I know I ran a long way. I was mad at Charlie, Gunnar, Adam, Mom, Dad, Dr. Caseman. I needed to run just like I need food and water. I end up at some park and watch the sunset. I didn't end up back at the hospital until almost 10:00 pm. Again, I had to convince Adam's nurses to let me stay with him. I said that I had nowhere else to go. I was lucky that I could stay in Adam's room. When I entered his room "Hey Ad's," I said.

"Oh Thank God, Bella there you are," Adam said.

"I'm sorry I had to make you worry. I needed to run and I ran for a long time. But I had to get everything off my mind," I said.

"I'm just glad your okay, I think Ollie went out of his mind," Adam said.

"I'm going to stay with you tonight. I just don't have the energy to go back to Yuba City," I said.

"That's fine, as long as you don't sleep with me," Adam said.

"Don't worry about it, the nurse told me there is a spare pillow and blanket in one of the cabinets. I will sleep on the couch," I said as I grabbed the blanket and pillow out of the cabinet, then I yawned big, "I'm tired, Good night, Ad's," I said.

"Good night Bells" Adam said.

ADAM P.O.V:

I was relieved when Bella walked into my room. I was really worried about her and I couldn't exactly go out and look for her. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't.

As soon as Bella was asleep I called Coach,

"Yello, Bombay residence" Coach said.

"Hey coach it's me," I said.

"Me who?" Coach asked.

"Adam," I said.

"Adam, who?" Coach asked.

"Very funny," I said as I rolled my eyes.

"Oh come on Banksie, I am trying to deal with a whole bunch of stress with Bella disappearing on us," Coach said.

"Well you don't need to worry about her. She's with me, she walked in about 15 minutes ago and right now, she's asleep," I said.

"Ok well good to know Banksie, I will be up there in the morning, get some sleep," Coach said.

"You too, good night," I said.

"Good night," Coach said and then we hung up. I turned off the light and fell asleep to some baseball highlights on SportsCenter.

**A/N: Well? Credit to bobcatwriter who wrote IT. What do you think? Will Gunnar really move back and what will happen if he does? What are your ideas? What are your thoughts on the situation at hand? What will the Banks children do next? Let me know, your ideas and such.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

Bella's POV

I had woken up and watch the sunrise from Adam's hospital room. I was tired and sore from all the running I did yesterday. "Good Morning," I heard Adam say.

"Good Morning," I said.

"What are you doing?" Adam said.

"Watching the sun rise," I said.

"Oh, your not going to go for a run this morning are you? Adam asked.

"No, I hurt too much. I think that I overdid it yesterday," I said.

Then there came a knock on the door. Coach walking into the door before he said, "Good morning, kids. Bella I brought some clean clothes for you, your hair brush, deodorant, soap, shampoo. I thought you might want a shower."

"Ah, nothing for me?" Adam asked. "I brought you a clean sister," Coach said.

"Ha ha very funny," Adam said. "Thanks Coach. How did you know I was here?" I said as I took the bag.

"Well I had a little elf," Coach said.

"A little elf? Coach your dad jokes are getting bad," Adam said shaking his head.

"Ok, maybe it was a 6 foot 4 inch elf," Coach said. I hugged my brother,

"Thanks Adam!" I said.

"Yeah, I knew everyone had to be worried about you. I know I was," Adam said.

"Hurry up, Bella. I thought I would take you out to breakfast before I had to be to work," Coach said.

"What I don't get breakfast, too?" Adam said.

"Nope; you have to stay here and eat their food," Coach said.

"Yuk, I hate hospital food," Adam said. "Then quit landing your ass in the hospital, then you won't have to eat the food," Coach said. I quickly got a shower and left with coach for breakfast.

July 8th, 1998

I stayed with Adam overnight again. Casey packed more than one days worth of clothes. It was me and Adam all day visiting. No one else wanted to come and see him. Cassie, Gunner, Charlie and I were to start to drive back to Minneapolis tomorrow. I decided that I was going to use some of my savings and fly back to Minneapolis a day or two later.

"Don't tell me that your still mad about what Charlie did?" Adam asked as he got back into bed from visiting the bathroom. No he wasn't doing anything stupid. He just had to go and poop. So his bowels were starting to work again, which was good.

"I don't know, are you still depressed over Gunnar?" I asked.

"Maybe, I don't know," Adam said.

"Well at least we will have each other," I said.

"Can you imagine us at 65 walking into the pharmacy and grocery store together?" Adam asked.

"Yeah and kids looking at us thinking that we are together," I said.

"Yep, we will be old, fat and together," Adam said.

"With cats," I said.

"With cats as long as you let me have a dog," Adam said with a finger pointed in my direction.

I started to laugh before I said, "Ok you can have a dog. So how many cats do I get?"

"That depends how many dogs will you allow me to have?" Adam asked.

"5 cats and 3 dogs?" I asked.

"Now come on it's got to be fair Ace, 5 of each," Adam said.

"5 dogs are you crazy? Cats take up way less room," I said.

"Ok, ok how about 3 of each?" Adam said.

"I guess," I said.

Then there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Adam said. Behind the door was Charlie and Gunnar. Charlie was carrying a vase with 3 roses in it.

"Aw, Spazway roses I have never felt so loved in my life," Adam said.

"There not for you there for Bella," Charlie said.

"I'm the one in the hospital and she's the one that gets roses. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride," Adam said as he crossed his arms.

"Charlie why?" I said.

"Because I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. Please forgive me, I love you. I mean it I really do love you," Charlie said.

"I don't know Charlie, you trying to stop me from seeing Adam in February was not great but what you did, what you admitted to is really not forgivable," I said.

"Vhat are vou going to do Bella?" Gunnar asked.

"I think that I am going to let you guys go ahead and go back to Minnesota. I am going to stay in California for a few more days and then fly home," I said.

"No your not Bella, your going home with Cassie, Gunnar and Charlie," Ollie said as he walked in.

"I have money in my savings account," I protested.

"No your bank account is frozen, you can make deposits but you can't make any withdrawals," Ollie said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you need to go home, you three are teammates it's not going to look well if you three cant get along on and off the ice," Ollie said.

"Great Dad froze my account, great just great," I said.

"No dad didn't freeze your account, I did," Ollie said.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"For the good of the team, I figured with you going home with Casey the two of you would have to work out your differences," Ollie said.

"What if I don't want to?" I asked.

"Then it's going to be a long car ride home," Charlie said.

"Great so I am going to be stuck in a car for 3 days with the grinning, cheating idiot," I said.

"Gunnar what about you," Adam asked.

"Vhat about me?" Gunnar asked.

"Are you mad at me for what happened?" Adam asked.

"No, vour just as much a victim as I am," Gunnar said.

"So are we,' Adam swallowed hard, 'Are we back together?"

"If vou vant to be," Gunnar said.

"Yes, I do," Adam said.

"Me too," Gunnar said and then they kissed hard.

"All right you two stop, it's making me sick," I said.

"What about us?" Charlie asked.

"NO!" I said.

We stay there visiting for a little bit. I knew we were in trouble when Ollie suggested we play truth or dare. "Okay Charlie, Truth or dare?" Ollie said.

"Dare," Charlie said.

"Alright your dare is, you have to kiss Adam on the lips," Ollie said.

"Then I pick truth," Charlie said.

"Too late, Vou said dare vou have to do it," Gunnar said.

"I don't believe this," Charlie said as he rolled his eyes.

"Scared what my sister is going to think?" Adam asked.

"Fine," Charlie said. Charlie then gave Adam a quick peek on the lips before he said, "there happy?"

"Not long enough," Ollie said.

Charlie then went in for another kiss, nice and slow as soon as the kiss was over he said, "Yuk, now I have to wash my mouth out. There are you happy?"

"Do I suck at kissing?" Adam asked.

"No your fine, I am just not into kissing guys. I think of you as more of a brother then a boyfriend. There does that prove it too you Bella I love kissing girls more then kissing guys?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, but I still don't forgive you," I said.

**A/N: Well? Credit to bobcatwriter who wrote this. What do you think? Will Bella **_**ever **_**forgive Charlie? All in all what do you see in the future for the Banks twins? Perhaps a reconciliation? Perhaps not? Are you happy with Adam and Gunnar getting back together? Let me know your ideas.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

July 9th, 1998  
This was the morning that we were to be leaving California. I decided to give Adam a break and not sleep in his hospital room. That and I wanted to sleep in a real bed again. Casey and I packed our stuff this morning and Gunnar and Charlie loaded the car with there gear and ours. I wanted to say goodbye to Adam, we got up to the hospital at about 9 just as Physical Therapy was finishing up with him.

We sat and visited for a little while and before I knew it Casey said "Well, we need to be hitting the road, I have a shift on Sunday." Charlie, Gunnar and Casey said their Goodbyes to Adam, leaving me last to hug my brother.

"You take care of yourself, don't make me come out here again," I said.

"I will you do the same, Cake Eater," Adam said.

"Not for long I won't be," I said.

"I hope so. I love you sis," Adam said.

"Me too, Ads" I said and then I gave him one final hug.

I gave a hug to Ollie too, "So when are are you heading back to France?" I asked.

"Uh in a couple of days. I have a few things to wrap up here before I go," Ollie said.

"You will let me know when your back there right?" I asked.

"Yep you will be at Connie's right?" Ollie asked.

"Yes, and then we move into Eden on August 23rd," I said.

"Call us when we get to where you're going," I heard Coach said to Casey.

"Of course," Casey said.

We loaded up in the car. I saw Adam looking out of the window from his hospital room. I smiled up at him, I only hoped that he would be okay. Cassie was driving the first leg of the trip, Gunnar was in the passenger seat, Charlie was behind him and I was behind Casey. We were each allowed to drive for two hours on the road at a time before we were allowed to switch drivers. If we wanted to. To be fair in the driving lessons between us all.

Charlie and I kept looking at each other and then looking away. After 20 minutes of this happening Charlie said, "This is ridiculous. We can't spend the next three days like this."

"Why not, we are doing pretty good so far?" I said.

"Bella I love you. I was an idiot with kissing your brother and I have deeply regretted doing it, even since it happened. But you need to know something, I only did it to get him to shut up about Lakeside, cause he was freaking out over the whole thing," Charlie said.

"Yeah and?" I said.

Charlie sighed heavily before he said "and I am sorry about what I said about your workout routine. I should probably shape up for the season," Charlie said.

"That is probably a good idea, considering we have 6 weeks until school starts and another 10 until our sports physicals are due and we start preseason training. You need to shape up," I said.

"Will you help me?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah I will help you," I said.

"Will you forgive me?" Charlie asked.

"Will see," I said.

When we got to Reno we had lunch near the infamous sign that said Reno- The Biggest Little City In The World. Casie wanted our picture near the sign, when we got done taking the photo. Charlie said, "Maybe we could go gambling."

"No Charles not until your 21," Cassie said.

"Ah Mom, I can't do anything fun," Charlie protested.

Adam's POV

I was saddened to see them go. I really didn't want Bella to leave me behind. I turned around and headed to my bed and got back into it. I then saw something on my hospital tray. A folded up piece of paper. I opened it up and saw the completed drawing of Bella's from the other day. It had a message in the bottom left hand corner, "One Step At A Time! I am Cheering for you! Love, Bella". I smiled at the drawing I vowed then and there I was going to do everything that I could to get me stronger and back out on the ice. I wanted one more season with my sister on the ice. One chance to go after a state championship. I knew that my time would be limited this season coming up. But I wanted to be ready for the 1999-2000 season.

A few days later Gordon's POV

I had dropped Ollie at the Airport to catch his flight back to France. He had several things to do to wrap up there and move his stuff home. He was to be back at Lakeside Academy by August 15th. Dr. Binford had offered Ollie a position, to help them raise money, change a few things that is bad about the rehab place and make it into a better facility for the students now and in the future. When I had gotten home from dropping Ollie at the Airport to catch his flight Michele said; "So I have been thinking."

"Thinking? uh oh that's not good," I said.

She elbowed me in the side, "Ow that hurt," I said.

"Oh stop it Gordon! You have taken harder hits than that, and been fine," Michele said.

"I'm sorry, what have you been thinking about?" I asked.

"Well with Adam being disowned by Phillip and Seraphina. Bella claiming emancipation from them. What would you think if we adopted them?" Michele asked.

"I think that would be great. But I think that Adam and Bella deserve a say in this too," Gordon said.

"Well first things first, we have to get married first," Michele said.

**A/N: What did you think? Credit of course to bobcatwriter. What do you think Adam and Bella will think of being adopted? What will Adam's reaction be to Ollie at Lakeside? Gordon and Michele getting married? What would you like to see in the Banks' future? Let me know and we'll see.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

August 28th, 1998 Adam's POV

Today was the day, I was being released from the psychiatric hospital. I was afraid that I would have been bounced to another facility in another state, to finish my recovery from both the Bulimia and the Cutting. I haven't done either since I went into the hospital. Actually I haven't cut in over 6 months. And I haven't made myself sick since July 3rd, 8 weeks today. I had learned from Coach and Ms. MacKay that I would be returning to Lakeside Academy once I was released from the hospital.  
I had put on a good 15 pounds again and I was scared that I was going to balloon back up to 229 or more. But after the MRI Imagineing both Dr. Jobman and Dr. Caseman said that I was regrowing my kidney and liver that had been ate away from me being stupid. I asked them about my heart and they said that they did not know, if it would regrow back and I was rebuilding the muscle tone in my arms and legs. Once I build enough muscle I would be able to burn some of the remaining fat that is bad for me and yet keep the fat that I need to keep me healthy and alive. I would need to make changes to my diet and exercise program which meant start working out with weights.

I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do this back at Lakeside because of there lack of weight equipment in there gym. Luckily the physical therapist gave me lots of ideas of what I could do to lift "weights" without buying real weights. I would have to borrow a couple of full gallons of milk to use them to pump iron. I would start with one full gallon of milk which weighed about 8 pounds and work my way up to lifting a hay bail which weighed about 50 to 60 pounds. I could have also used a container of milk that was used and about to be tossed out and put water in it and reseal the gallon up.

I was ready to go home, I mean back to Lakeside. Coach had managed to get me out of the hospital that morning. I needed to see the dentist to find out what kind of damage I had done to my teeth from when I was stupid and to get my tux from the tux shop. Because get this Coach was getting married to Michele MacKay, tomorrow. Eleanor Bombay and Mr. and Mrs. MacKay had made the trip to California to witness this occasion. I was going to be coach's best man, Hans was going to be a cute ring boy. Mr. Tibbles was even coming to the wedding.

"Coach, what about the ducks? Aren't they coming?" I asked while we were on our way to the dentist office.

"Unfortunately, no. Because they started school on Monday and Eden Hall would not let them come. But don't worry about it, Michelle and I have plans to really make it official when we move back to Minneapolis next summer. Actually it will probably not be next summer but the summer after you kids graduate from Eden Hall. We are going to throw as Portman calls one kick ass party," Coach said.

"Wait, we are moving back to Minneapolis next summer? I thought we were moving back in January?" I asked.

"Well because of your hospitalitization's your stay at Lakeside has been extended 6 months. Dr. Freeman didn't feel comfortable with releasing you in January with only 9 months of continuous therapy with them. They wanted to make sure that you were really ready to get out into the real world, since you would be dealing with senior year and the rest of your life. I hope your not mad," Coach said.

"So I will graduate from Lakeside when?" I asked.

"July 6th, 1999, and then we will have a week here in California to pack up and then we are moving back to Minneapolis the following week. You will start at Eden Hall as a senior," Gordon said.

"I will be a senior? Meaning they are going to be taking my credits from Lakeside Academy? I will get to graduate with Bella and the Ducks?" I asked.

"Yep you might have a little more homework then the rest of the students at Lakeside to get you caught up to Eden Hall's Standards. But that will be okay, Right?" Coach asked.

"Yeah, that would be okay. As long as I graduate with my sister at the end," I said.

"Good, then comes the one thing that' he shuddered, 'you would have to learn," Coach said.

"What's that Coach?" I asked.

"Teaching you how to drive," Coach said.

"That's right, I turn 16 in less than a month. Bella will have a driver's license before I will," I said.

"I know that's a scary thought you kids out on the road," Coach said.

"You know what is going to be even scarier, when Hans is driving," I said.

"Oh GOD, I'm going to be an old man at that point. I am going to be older than my father was," Coach said.

"What happened to your dad?" I asked.

Coach hesitated before he said, "Car accident, He was driving home from work in a blizzard, a semi-tractor trailer side swiped him, and the car hit a tree. He died instantly, a snow plough driver found him about an hour after he died. He didn't believe in seat belts. Does it make sense as to why I insist you kids have your seatbelt on in the car?"

"Yeah," I said as I was tightening my seatbelt.

"God, I will never forget that night," Coach said as he was pulling into a parking spot at the dentist.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well we had been released from school at noon for a snow day, my mom came and picked me up. I had begged and begged her to let me go out onto the ice behind our house let me play hockey in snow. She finally gave in at about 4 o'clock and said fine go! It was snowing great big huge flakes. I was called into the house at 5:30 for dinner. Dad hadn't come home yet. He called and said that he was on his way an hour earlier mom said. So, we ate dinner without him. I sat down and did my homework in living room after dinner that night. Then I noticed a cop car pulling into the driveway, with its lights flashing. The police officer comes to the door. I of course answer it, he says I need to speak to Mrs. Eleanor Bombay. I invited him in from the cold. Mom asks him to come to into the living room. He tells us that Gregory Bombay, my dad, was in an accident that evening. My mom asks is he okay? The cop says no, Mrs. Bombay. Your husband has died. That crumpled mom like that," Coach said as he snapped his fingers.

"Wow," I said.

"I had taken off to Han's shop, mom didn't even know I was gone. I was crying when I walked into the back door of the shop. Jan was working in the front while Han's was in the back, sharpening skates. I told Han's what had happened. He and Jan closed the shop early for the evening. They took me back home. Hans was comforting mom and Jan put me to bed. Both of them were rocks for mom and I during those first six months after dad died. Everyone came dad's funeral, even Jack Reilly," Coach said.

"Wow," I said.

Coach gulped before he said, " I quit hockey, the year dad died. Mom had to sell the house before Christmas that year. That was hard moving out of the house I spent 10 years in on Thanksgiving weekend. She said she couldn't bear to live in the house, much longer. We rented homes for the rest of my growing up years. I started working in Hans and Jan's shop at age 12. At fourteen I got enrolled to Eden Hall Academy, fell in love with debate, was captain my senior year. I didn't even want anything to do with hockey,' Coach laughed, 'Your not even going to believe this, but when I was going there I even debated with the school board to terminate the hockey program at Eden Hall."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because of my bad memories with it, I couldn't stand to be around it. That and Eden Hall Varsity Hockey Team was not very good in those days. That was before Coach Wilson took over and the team became what it is today," Coach said.

"Wow," I said.

"Yeah, I still can't listen to Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay, without thinking of my dad. Well let's go find out about your teeth. Shall we?" Coach said. We got out of the car and walked into the dentist's office.

I was scared about what the dentist would say so I had Coach come back with me. He even made me smile when the dental hygienist left when he said, "Hey Adam look a drill." Then he started to make a drill noise, while poking the side of me. How I would have given anything for coach to be my dad. As much as I loved Ollie and Bella, I wished that Coach was our dad. I think we would have had a lot more fun growing up. At least I would have known what it would have been like to wrestle with a dad. My father would not want to wrestle, said it was beneath the Banks family to be doing something so barbaric. The dentist said that I was lucky, I only had 1 cavity and the enamel was wearing away from my teeth. I would have to return to the dentist the next week to get that cavity filled. As long as I didn't throw up anymore, continually I should have no problems, After that I was to return to the dentist every 3 months to have a check-up for the next two years.

After the dentist and getting our tuxes it was time to go home for dinner that night, I was glad to have my freedom back. I called Bella and the Ducks, and we talked for a long time that night. They were going to throw their annual house party the next night, after Coach and Michele tied the knot.

**A/N: What did you think? Credit of course to bobcatwriter. What would you like to see in the Banks' future? Let me know and we'll see.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

August 29th, 1998 Adam's POV

Michelle didn't allow Coach to see her at all that morning, said something about how it is bad luck. In fact she hadn't seen him from when he went to the hospital to pick me up. Hans was transported back and forth between Coach and Ms. MacKay. One of their parents or I would have to do the transporting. Coach was a nervous nelly about getting married. "Gordon you need something to calm your nerves," Mr. Tibbles said.

"Were you ever this nervous the day you got married?" Coach asked.

"Yep, both times," Mr. Tibbles said. I glared at Mr. Tibbles, I didn't think that he was ever married.

"Here have a nip of alcohol that will calm your nerves," Mr. MacKay said.

Coach was so nervous that I had to tie his tie. "There you go, how are you feeling now, Coach?" I asked as I finished the tie job.

"A little nervous, but better than I was this morning," Coach said as he smiled at me.

They had a small ceremony in the backyard. A few neighbors, Me, Mr. Tibbles, Baby Hans, a friend of Micheles from college, Eleanor, Mr. and Mrs. MacKay and the ducks via the phone. Michele looked beautiful in her dress, I could only imagine what Bella would look like when it was her turn.

"My friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate one of life's greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of committed marital love and to add our best wishes to the words which shall unite, Gordon Andrew Bombay and Michele Elizabeth MacKay in Marriage. Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" Judge Carson asked.

"I do," Mr. MacKay said as he was crying as he was giving Ms. MacKay away.

"The commitment that the two of you are about to make is the most important commitment that two people can make, you are about to create something new, the marriage relationship, an entity that never ends. As you stand here today, are you now prepared to begin this commitment to one another?" Judge Carson asked.

"I am," Both Coach and Ms. MacKay said.

"Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?" Judge Carson asked.

"I have," Coach and Ms. MacKay said.

"Gordon Andrew Bombay and Michele Elizabeth MacKay, I would ask that you both remember to treat yourself and each other with dignity and respect, to remind yourself often of what brought you together today. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your marriage deserves. When frustration and difficulty assail your marriage as these do to every relationship at one time or another focus on what still seems right between you, not only the part that seems wrong. This way, when clouds of trouble hide the sun in your lives and you lose sight of it for a moment, you can remember that the sun is still there. And if each of you will take responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight," Judge Carson said.

"Do you Gordon Andrew Bombay take Michele Elizabeth MacKay to be your wedded wife?" Judge Carson asked.

"I will," Coach said.

"Will you love and comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?" Judge Carson asked.

"You bet I will," Coach said.

"Do you Michele Elizabeth MacKay take Gordon Andrew Bombay to be your wedded husband?" Judge Carson asked.

"I will," Michele said.

"Will you love and comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live?" Judge Carson asked.

"I will," Michele said.

"Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands and declare your consent before these witnesses by repeating after me. I Gordon Andrew Bombay take you Michele Elizabeth MacKay," Judge Carson said.

" I Gordon Andrew Bombay take you Michele Elizabeth MacKay," Coach said.

"To be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live," Judge Carson said.

"To be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live," Coach said.

"Michele Elizabeth MacKay take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you," Judge Carson said.

"Michele Elizabeth MacKay take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you," Coach said as he slid her ring onto her finger.

"I Michelle Elizabeth MacKay take you Gordon Andrew Bombay," Judge Carson said.

"I Michelle Elizabeth MacKay take you Gordon Andrew Bombay," Ms. MacKay said.

"To be my husband to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live," Judge Carson said.

"To be my husband to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live," Ms. MacKay said.

"Gordon Andrew Bombay take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you," Judge Carson said.

"Gordon Andrew Bombay take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you," Ms. MacKay said as she slid his ring onto his finger.

"Gordon and Michele, in so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in matrimony, have promised your commitment to each other by these vows and the joining of your hands and the giving of these rings, by the authority vested in my by the State of California, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. Congratulations, you may kiss your bride,"Judge Carson said.

As Coach and Ms. MacKay. I mean Mrs. Bombay were kissing I thought to myself, Don't cry, Adam only sissy's cry. "Oh what the hell," I said and I started to cry.

"May I present to you Mr. and Mrs Gordon Andrew Bombay," Judge Carson said.

Then we heard, "QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK," out of the Ducks.

"Alright, Alright that's enough, Ducks. Go to Mickey's and Celebrate," Coach said.

When I hugged Coach and Mrs. Bombay i said, "Well congratulations Coach and Ms. Mac-, I mean Mrs. Bombay."

"Oh Adam call me, Michele," Michele said as she put her hand on my face, lovingly.

"I will Michele, I will," I said.

Later that night after most of the guests have left and Coach and Michele was packing up there car to go to their honeymoon hotel in San Francisco, "Adam, are you sure you won't be upset, by us not taking you back up to Lakeside, tomorrow?" Michele asked.

"Michele, I have told you and coach a hundred times. Go it's your Honeymoon. Enjoy, have fun, get drunk, have sex, lots of sex. I and Eleanor will be fine. Mike will be here to pick me up tomorrow morning," I said.

Mr and Mrs. MacKay was leaving first thing in the morning to go back to Duluth, Minnesota. Eleanor was going to be watching over Baby Hans while Coach and Michele were on 3 day honeymoon. Coach for some reason had business to take care of in Minneapolis at the tail end of the week, I didn't know why.

"Michele he will be fine, and we will see him at the next parents day in a few weeks," Coach said.

"Alright you take care of yourself Adam," Michele said as she hugged me goodbye.

"I will," I said.

"See you in a few weeks, you behave," Coach said.

"I will," I said. Then Michele and Coach got into their car and drove away.

**A/N: What did you think? Credit of course to bobcatwriter. What would you like to see in the Banks' future? Let me know and we'll see.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Ducks. Only Bella, Jonson, Emily and Alex, bobcatwriter owns Treban, Ms Gables, Steven and most of the people from Lakeside**

August 30th 1998 Adams point of view

I had woken up at 7:30 in the morning prepared to go back to Lakeside, my bags were already packed. I went to the garage to go workout on the treadmill that Coach had, I had ran about 4 miles and worked out with the weights for about 25 minutes. Coach told me before he left for his honeymoon to be careful with the weights. When I was finished working out I had decided to go grab a quick shower and finish my packing. Mike was showing up at about 11.

When Mike pulled into the driveway I ran out to meet him. "Hey Mike," I said.

"Hey Adam you're looking good you're looking fit," Mike said.

"Thanks" I replied as I showed him my body.

"You ready to go?" Mike asked.

"Yeah let me go grab my bags, say goodbye to Eleanor and Hans and we will be on our way.

"Hey Eleanor, Mike's here I will be heading back up to Lakeside now," I said as I walked into the kitchen.

"Mike's here already? I was going to fix lunch," Eleanor said.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Sorry, we will get a bite up on the way. It's a long drive," I said.

"Are you sure Mike doesn't want to rest a while?" Eleanor said.

"Oh, I would love too mame, but like Adam said it's a long drive," Mike said.

"Are you sure you don't want me to make you some sandwiches for the road, we have plenty of cold cuts left over from the wedding, that is going to go bad," Eleanor said.

"Eleanor enough, this is where coach would say stop mom. We are fine we will get a bite in Chico, besides I had a late breakfast and I just had an orange for a snack 20 minutes ago," I said with a smile to my face.

Eleanor's shoulders slumped before she said, "Ok I just worry about you is all. Your like my grandson, I worry about my boys all of my boys."

"I know its okay I promise," I said.

"Ok give your grandmother a hug. You be safe up there," Eleanor said.

"I will be and I promise, I wont do anything stupid," I said.

"You better not, I don't need you to be scaring me like that again! Go say goodbye to your brother," Eleanor said as she rubbed her fingers across my cheeks, what she could reach anyway.

"As soon as I grabbed my bags from my room," I said. I went into my room and took a look around the place. I knew that I would be back for Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, Easter break and several weekend visits in between. Then it would be time to pack up my room and move out east again, I grabbed my suitcases and headed out to the living room. Baby Hans was on the floor underneath his play mat, playing with his toys. Actually he was drooling on his toys, I had a feeling he was going to be getting teeth in soon.

"My God he has gotten big, how old is he now," Mike said.

"4 months," I said.

"It won't be long and he'll be walking and talking," Mike said.

"I hope it will be a while," I said.

I grabbed baby Hans and I said, "Hey Hans I am getting ready to leave. I want a hug from you."

"A-ba a-ba a-da a-ba," Hans said.

"I know, I'll miss you too," I said as I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I then put him back down on his back and played a quick game of Peek-a-Boo. Hans just giggled.

Soon I was loaded up in the car and on my way up to Eagle Lake. I just watched the miles past in front of me. It was when we were close to Chico that I asked, "So, how's it going up there?"

"It's going, there has been a lot of change since you've been gone, but we kept your room just like you left it," Mike said.

"Change? What kind of change?" I asked.

"Well Treban, Xavier, Luke and Kevin have graduated. Kyle and Steven leave in a couple of weeks Thank God. We have several new faces that you will meet and a new staff member," Mike said.

"Do I have a roommate?" I asked.

"Yep, I think you will like him," Mike said.

"What's his name?" I asked.

"Oliver, he's a real quiet boy," Mike said.

"Oh cool," I said. After we spent some time talking about what was going on, I told Mike the story of mine and Bella's break up with our boyfriends and how Charlie tried to get back together with Bella. And the other crazy stuff I was doing while I was in the hospital. I told him that I was starting to get into Yoga.

"Well maybe you could lead a class," Mike said.

"Yeah that would be cool," I said. I asked about Henry the duck and found out that after I left how Henry was lost without me.

Finally we turned into the Academy, "Here we are home sweet home," Mike said.

"Yeah," I said with a worried look too my face.

Some of the guys came out to greet me; Lance, Billy, Michael, David, Ryan, and Tim all came out to greet me.

"Well look who's back little baby Adam. Waah, Waah, Waah!" Steven said. I had to slowly count to ten, otherwise I might have strangled him. I could not wait for the next 14 days to pass quickly and Steven to be GONE!

Then I heard Henry quacking at me, "QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK."

I squatted down and said "come here Henry!"

"Quack, quack, quack, quack quack!" Henry said.

"Look at that Little baby Adam is talking to a duck! HA HA HA HA!" Steven said.

Annie yelled out, "Steven office now!" I took one look at Annie she had changed.

Henry came up to me and I petted him, "Quack quack quack," Henry said.

"I know I missed you and I love you too," I said.

I went to my room and saw how the room tags had changed from a Baseball to a football. I saw my name and then I saw Oliver, Staff. "Great, I am rooming with staff member. That happens to have the same name as my brother. I won't be getting away with as much stuff as I would if I had a regular roommate." I thought to myself. I unpacked my stuff and hung Bella's drawing on my cork board and made my bed.

I was just finishing tucking in my sheets when I heard, "Hey Roomie," my roommate Oliver said as he walked in. I rolled my eyes and then slowly I turned to face him.

"My name is Adam, not ro- OLLIE?" I asked.

"What's up bro?" Ollie said to me.

"What, where, when, why, how. What are you doing up here?" I asked.

"Oh didn't you get the staff member part of our board? I work here now," Ollie said.

"What happened to France? What happened to hockey?" I asked.

"I quit and moved here. Dr. Binford offered me a position here and I took it," Ollie said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to see that stupid look that you get on your face. When something surprises the ever living crap out of you," Ollie said.

"Does Bella know?" I asked.

"Yeah, she knows. Even Coach Bombay knew," Ollie said.

"What about dad?" I asked.

"I haven't exactly told him yet or mom. I am waiting to see if he sends the private dick, to look for me, before I fess up to where I am at," Ollie said.

"I am so glad to see you," I said as I gave him a hug.

"Yeah I am sure, but just because you have a staff member that's a brother, you can't go around here acting all high and mighty, because I will shoot you down. When we are in private and your acting like a jerk, I do have permission to put you in a headlock." Ollie said.

"Got it. Can you throw Steven out faster than the two weeks to graduation?" I asked. "Ha I wish. I tried my first week I was here, but he just has 13 more days, here. In fact he goes home on Saturday for a weeks visit," Ollie said.

"I can make it until Saturday. So what is your job?" I asked.

"Grant Procurement Officer," Ollie said. I gave him a confused look. Ollie rolled his eyes before he said, "Basically my job is to go and raise money for this place. I am helping the kitchen out as well in developing a healthier meal plan for you guys. While I am working on the contacts to help get grant money in here to make this place better for all."

"Are they paying you for this?" I asked.

"No, college credit at Lassen Community College," Ollie said.

"What? You've gone back? Why?" I asked.

"Because I can't play hockey forever, Ads. Even dad proved that one," Ollie said.

"What are you studying?" I asked.

"Business Administration. It's a transfer degree program so hopefully I will be able to transfer everything back to the U when we move home next summer," Ollie said.

"We? Your moving back to Minneasota with Coach, his family and I?" I asked.

"Yep, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I will be around in the afternoon. Tuesday and Thursdays I will be around in the mornings and I have a night class on Thursdays," Ollie said.

"Please tell me that you are going to take this seriously?" I asked.

"I should, I am paying for this not dad and I am staying here is part of my job and so I wont get involved into the party life on campus," Ollie said.

"Well congrats, I am proud of you," I said.

Then there was a knock on the door, "Come in," Ollie said.

"Adam Dr. Binford wants to talk to you," Mike said.

I rolled my eyes, "Adam relax it's probably nothing," Ollie said.

Ollie was sure right about that one. Dr. Binford had me sign the extension agreement for my continued enrollment at Lakeside. I made sure this time that I read the entire contract through before I signed where I needed to sign. Coach was going to resign on the first parents weekend that was coming up in a couple of weeks.

**A/N: And that concludes The Way Things Should Be. But fear not, there is another one on it's way. Under the title of the Way Things Could Be. Thank you of course to my wonderful co-writer bobcatwriter.**

**Summary for the Way Things Could Be: **It's Junior year! What could go wrong? Well if your Adam and Isabella Banks well a lot! Follow Adam, Bella and the rest of the ducks through the ups and downs of Junior year at Eden Hall and Lakeside Academy. Will Adam graduate and finally be healed from the sins of the past? Read on and find out.


	23. Sequel Update

**A/N: Just realised I didn't say the sequel was up on here, but it is, so yeah. It's the Way Things Could Be. Junior Year!**


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